For the Greater Good
by DaffodilDreamer
Summary: 5th year she began to notice the beauty of his eyes. 6th year they were madly in love. At the end of 6th year, Lily learned the power of selflessness, and played a significant role in the breaking of her own heart. Can they stick with their decision?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

_The Ministry of Magic Annual Christmas Party_

"Blimey Al!" James said, elbowing his younger brother. "This place is huge!"

Albus rubbed his arm. "Yeah, pretty awesome."

"I bet there are a million rooms! Wanna bet me Al, wanna bet?" James said excitedly.

"A million and one actually," their dark, messy haired father said. "Ron and I counted them last week."

"But I think this event is contained to one room, so you two will have to wait a few years before exploring the rest. I mean it boys!" their red haired mother told them.

"Why do you always say 'you two?' It's not like _I_ ever do anything," Al complained.

"Oh really? Who was it that I found stalking Mrs. Mehan's cat in the bushes the other day?" she asked.

"James AND Al!" teased a tiny red haired girl who had turned around in her father's arms to face them.

"Oh shut up, Lily!" Al groaned. "Look mum, none of those things are ever my ideas!"

"It was you who told me where the cat was!" James accused.

"Because you tricked me! You're always getting me into trouble!"

"I never get into trouble like you guys do, do I daddy?" Lily asked angelically, looking at her father.

"Shut UP Lily!" Albus yelled, stomping his feet.

"Boys!" their father said sternly.

Lily stuck out her tongue at her older brothers. "And Lily." Al muttered under his breath.

"All of you! Please behave yourselves. All of your cousins will be here, I'm sure you can find something to do together to stay out of trouble," their mother said, starting to remove her jacket.

There was a chorus of 'Yes mum's as jackets were removed and handed to one of the greeters who in return, handed their father a gold tag and levitated the jackets away.

The five Potters walked through the glass double doors in front of them and into an elaborately decorated banquet hall. On the far side, there were a bunch of tables with gold and silver table cloths, each with its own unique flower center piece. The half of the room in which they had entered had a few longer tables lining the walls holding an assortment of finger foods and drinks. In the center of the room against the back wall was a small raised stage on which a quintet of string instruments were enchanted to play throughout the night.

Many families from the ministry had already arrived, and now stood talking amongst their co-workers and families. "Hey, hey, look! It's Rose and Hugo! Right over there!" James said, pulling at Al's arm.

Al looked at his mother. "Go along you three. Remember, stay out of trouble!" she said.

Al and James took off running towards their cousins who were currently trying to reach some crackers off of the table. "Daddy, put me down!" Lily squealed, trying to escape after her brothers.

"Nope, I think I'm going to keep you with me, right here, all night long," her father teased.

"But dad! This is your Christmas party for work, which means you will talk about your work and it's always so boring!" she pouted, kicking her feet playfully, and throwing her head back.

"I don't know Lily, you were complaining that, oh what was it... ah yes, that your feet hurt so bad that there was no way that you could wear your 'fancy shmansy' shoes," her mother teased.

"Okay okay, I lied. I just didn't want to come. Now, will you put me down please!" she said.

"Oh alright, flower. Go have fun!" her father said, placing her gently onto her feet. She was wearing a pair of light blue sandals to match her dress. "If it counts for anything, I really like your fancy shmansy shoes," he whispered in her ear.

Lily giggled, kissed her father's cheek, and ran towards her brothers and cousins who were now gathered in a tight circle near one of the food tables. Harry put his now free arms around Ginny's waist. "What a crazy bunch of kids. Are you sure they're ours?" he asked, playfully kissing her ear.

"Given what I know about both of our families, yes, they most certainly are," she laughed.

Harry chuckled and lead her away to meet some of his new colleagues.

xXx

"...and you can't change hiding spots because that's cheating!" Hugo said excitedly.

"Hugo! I'm telling the rules. Right, so as I was saying, the finder counts to 60 and then goes to find the hiders, who can't switch spots. The first one found becomes the finder," Rose finished proudly. Rose was ten, the oldest out of the bunch by a few months. She took her spot as the boss of the group and always put herself in charge of play time activities, which most importantly, included explaining rules and directions...every time. She had just finished explaining the rules to an old muggle game her mother, Hermione, taught her last summer.

"Okay okay, let's just play already!" James said, eying the room for a suitable hiding spot.

"Okay, since I'm the oldest, I get to find first," Rose beamed. She turned around and her brother and cousins scattered off into the sea of people to find the perfect hiding place in the room.

Lily, being the smallest, was able to duck under and between many conversations unnoticed, until she ran straight into a boy. "Hey are you playing or what?" she said quickly, looking the obstruction in the face.

He stared at her for a moment. "What are you playing?" he asked quietly.

"Hide-n-seek. Rose, that bossy brunette girl by the punch bowl, is finding, so go and hide fast if you wanna play!" she said before speeding off.

The boy stood there for a moment longer, looked up at his parents who were engaged in conversation, and casually walked off in the direction the red headed girl had ran. He saw her stop by a circular table, look around and the proceed to crawl under it. He looked back at the brunette girl she had mentioned earlier and saw that she was walking towards the opposite side of the room. He quickened his pace and slipped under the same table as the red head.

"Hey this is my hiding place!" Lily whispered harshly.

The boy, once again, just stared at her. "Are you deaf? Get lost!" she said, pushing him slightly.

The boy gave her a sad look and moved to leave from under the table when Lily pulled him by his shirt collar. "Wait!" she whispered, holding her breath and putting her her index finger to her lips.

The table cloth started to rise next to Lily, who closed her eyes tightly. The table cloth rose a bit higher before it suddenly fell and the finder ran away. A few moments passed before Lily exhaled. The boy looked at her questioningly. "Did you see those ugly pink shoes? Those are Rose's shoes, you know the finder! I guess you have to stay here now. I will not let you give away my hiding place," Lily whispered quickly. "Besides, it would be breaking the rules if you moved I guess. Rose hates it when people break her precious rules."

She let go of the boy's green collar and he crossed his leg underneath him. "So how long do we stay under here?" the boy asked suddenly.

"We stay under here until Rose finds us. She never finds me though. I'm the best hider," she replied smartly.

"Why?"

"What do you mean why? You have a problem with this game? No one asked you to play,"she said, crossing her arms.

"You did actually. I've never played a game like this before."

"We play loads of muggle games at Aunt Hermione's house. They are actually quite fun."

"I've never played any before," he said looking down at his knees.

"We play a different one each time we come to one of these parties."

"This is my first one. How many have you been to?"

"Well my parents started bringing me when I turned five, so this is my third. Every year I have to wear these froofy dresses and shoes that really hurt my feet. Everything always has to match," she complained.

"I thought all girls liked to wear dresses."

"Well not me. I hate everything I can't play Quidditch in."

"Well that's a game I've heard of. What position do you play?" he asked, interested.

"Well usually I'm a chaser like my mum. Al is always the seeker, but that's just because he's afraid of bludgers and can't deal with the quaffle. James used to play beater, but he broke too many windows so now he usually plays keeper. Rose plays chaser and Hugo does as well. My other older cousins sometimes play with us, but they play real Quidditch at Hogwarts and find our games boring. As if, how could any kind of Quidditch be boring," she paused. "Can you keep a secret?"

The boy nodded. "Good. I for one can't keep any secrets, but this one is my own and no one else knows about it. Are you ready?" she asked. The boy nodded again. "I really would like to play seeker when I go to Hogwarts, just like my dad did."

"So then why don't you?"

"I think mum would be crushed. I've always been my daddy's favorite, but playing chaser in the back yard was the one thing she can teach me, you know?"

"I've always wanted to play seeker as well," the boy said.

"How long is it until you go to Hogwarts? I've still got four years till I can go, and I'm going to be the last in my family, but I can't wait! I'm going to be a Gryffindor just like my parents, grandparents, and uncles! What house do you want?"

"You talk a lot."

"My mother says I haven't stopped talking since I was born. My Uncle George says it will get me into trouble some day, but I don't think talking could get me into more trouble than James and Al always get into. Well it's James really, Al ju-"

"I'm going to Hogwarts in four years. I'm an only child, so I'll be the first and last to go. My family has always been in Slytherin, but I want to be wherever I belong. I don't know where that is, but I'm sure the sorting hat will decide what's best."

Lily stared at him for a moment, dumbstruck, and then laughed. "Now who talks too much?"

They both laughed. "What's your name?" he asked, holding out his right hand.

"Lily Potter," she said, shaking his.

"Lily? Lily where are you?" Rose's voice called from near by. "I give up, I've found everyone else already."

Lily smirked. "See, I told you, they never find me," she said as she made to leave the table.

She paused as her hand pulled up the golden table cloth. "What did you say your name was?"

"Lily! I'm going to get your mother! I meant it!"

Lily's head snapped around. "Ugh, Rose I'm right here! I told you that you could never find me!" Lily dashed out from underneath the table, leaving the small boy behind.

"Scorpius Malfoy," the boy whispered softly.

A/N:

Well I hope you enjoyed this first chapter! I have a couple more things written for here and there points in the fic. Now I just have to string them all together. I've had this written for a while. Hopefully now that I have finally put it up, my mind will put the rest of the story line in place. Oh and another note, just so you all know, I think I will be changing the ages of the characters around. Not a whole lot, but a bit. Thanks!


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**_  
4 Years Later, September 1__st_

James and Al rushed past Lily with their trolleys, racing towards the Hogwarts Express. Lily had always imagined herself running towards the scarlet engine alongside her two older brothers...or ahead of them actually. It was common knowledge that Lily was the fastest of the Potter children. But now, she couldn't seem to get her legs to move. The only thing she really knew of the magic world was Quidditch. Sure, she had seen her parents use magic around the house and she knew the different types, but Quidditch was the only thing she really cared about, and she couldn't even try out for the house team until next year. A whole year with no Quidditch. Great.

"Lily? You're still standing here?" her father teased.

Lily blushed. "I remember James' first year you were so excited you nearly boarded the train right then to go with him. You aren't getting cold feet are you?"

Lily shrugged and shook her head. "I guess I'm just nervous, that's all," she admitted to her father, after looking to make sure her mother wasn't around. Lily always had a special sort of relationship with her father.

Harry looked at her, concerned. She hated when he looked concerned. She bit her lip nervously, trying to think of something to calm him. "Lily?" It was her mother. Harry held up a hand to her, gesturing that it would only be a minute.

"Are you nervous about what house you will be in?" he asked her quietly, grabbing her shoulders.

"No," she sighed. "It's more of the fact that I don't know anything about magic really. What if...what if there is nothing I'm really good at? Like Al is really good at Charms and James is really good at Defense Against the Dark Arts. Rose is good at, well everything. What if I just don't have anything I'm good at?"

"Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. I never used to be good at Potions, I'm still not really, but I've just learned to deal with that and to pay extra attention while brewing them. Your mother still has trouble with some Transfiguration spells," he said.

Lily breathed a little easier. "If your dreadful, you can always come and live back at the house with your mum and I forever. We'd be glad to have you!" he laughed.

"Dad! I'm not living in the house with you and mum forever!" she moaned.

"Well then study up kid," her father laughed squeezing her shoulder. "Come say goodbye to your mother and then we'll get you onto the train."

Lily nodded and pushed her trolley over to where her mother was standing. Her father grabbed her trunk and lifted it aboard the train, leaving Lily and her mother alone. "Are you okay sweetheart?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I'll have James and Al to look after me, yeah?" Lily said, smiling.

Her mother smiled in return. "I was actually hoping that you would look after them. Those two, I never know what stories they tell me are real, and which are fake," she said, shaking her head.

"Sure thing mum," she said, giving her mother a hug.

"Good. You should probably get on the train now. James and Al are towards the middle with Rose, Hugo and Domenique already. I think your older cousin Victoire is a prefect again this year, so she will be sitting in the front of the train. If you ever need anything, she's always there for you, okay?"

"Yes mum. I'll write as soon as something interesting happens," Lily said, walking towards the train.

After giving her dad one last hug, she started to move towards the train. "Oh and Lily?" her dad said suddenly, serious.

"Yes daddy?"

"No boys," he said.

Lily gawked at him for a moment before he started smiling. "Yeah sure dad," she laughed back as she turned and stepped onto the train.

She took in several deep breaths as she walked down the narrow train corridor. Many of the compartments were already filled with her soon to be class mates. Some she recognized from her father's Ministry gatherings, others from the neighborhood. She waved politely as she passed Alice Longbottom, a third year whose father taught Herbology at Hogwarts, and Joselyn Bell, a fourth year that Lily used to sit with during Quidditch season.

Lily reached out to open the dividing door to the fourth car when the handle slid out of her reach. Instead of a door in front of her, there stood a thin, blonde boy who was about her height. She looked at him for a moment before he smiled hesitantly at her. She smiled back, slightly confused, as she stepped around him, thanking him for holding the door for her. He looked strangely familiar, but she didn't have time to think about it; she was abruptly yanked by her elbow into the first compartment on the left. "Ouch James!" she cried.

"Geeze Lils, you took forever," he complained, mockingly.

Lily made a face at him and took a seat next to her favorite cousin, Domenique, who was also a first year at Hogwarts. Domenique was the youngest girl born to her Uncle Bill and Aunt Fleur. She was slightly taller than Lily with long, straight brown hair that Lily had always envied. She had escaped the Weasley curse of having flaming red hair. She and Domenique were almost complete opposites. Domenique treasured each opportunity to don a fancy dress and pair of strappy sandals, she always had a crush on a boy, and most importantly, she was the best at keeping secrets, which was something Lily was never able to do.

On her other side was her cousin Hugo, another first timer at Hogwarts. Like Lily, Hugo had inherited the Weasley hair, along with his mother's waves and curls. He usually kept to himself at family events, not daring to get into the kind of trouble that James ans Al got into. The reason for this was sitting directly across from him; his older sister Rose.

Rose never grew out of her bossiness she had as a child. This probably had to do with the fact that she was the oldest of our little group added to the fact that she was extremely tall for her age. She was smart and had a knack for memorizing everything and anything anyone ever told her. She had admired the oldest Weasley girl, Victoire, ever since she started Hogwarts.

Next to her was her complete opposite, Lily's eldest brother James. James was, by all definitions, a troublemaker. He always seemed to be everywhere at once, and always where he wasn't supposed to be. He usually dragged Al along to be his accomplice. He wasn't the brightest one in the family, but he made up for it with his skills on the Quidditch pitch. Just last year he had made the Gryffindor team as a beater, something Lily was extremely jealous of.

Al sat next to his brother, closest to the door. At a young age, Al accepted the fact that whenever James got into trouble, so would he. He found it to be unfair at times, but looking back, he always had fun running around with his brother. He, much to his parent's dismay, was the only Potter child not interested what so ever in Quidditch.

Differences aside, they had all grown up as a close family. They were the only friends that Lily had. It was comforting to know that they would never be far away during the school year. They sat in the compartment talking about classes, warning Lily, Hugo and Domenique about Peeves the Poltergeist, the care taker Filch, and all of the awful essays they would have to write in A History of Magic class. There was some teasing about the three ending up not being sorted into Gryffindor, as well as some mean bragging by James about not being old enough to try for the Quidditch teams. It was during this particular discussion that Lily excused herself to get some air.

She closed the compartment door, silencing the all too familiar laughs of her family. She headed off down the corridor, not knowing exactly where she intended to go to get said fresh air. She really just wanted some time by herself, but all of the compartments were probably full by now. Lily was about to turn around when she saw a door at the end of the corridor that was propped open by a piece of black cloth. Turning around was no longer an option, curiosity always dominated over her sense of reason.

She reached the door, looked around and slipped inside when no one was watching. She stifled a scream as she saw trees moving quickly around her. She clutched to the door handle, terrified. "Now who's stealing who's hiding place?" a voice said playfully somewhere on her left.

Lily turned her head slowly, knees shaking. "What?"

"I said it looks like this time you are stealing my hiding place," the boy repeated.

She looked at him confused. "We met while playing that muggle hiding game a few years ago. You yelled at me for taking your hiding place," he explained.

Lily thought for a moment. "You're the boy from the Christmas party?"

He nodded. There was silence between them. "Why are you out here?" Lily gasped suddenly, remembering her current surroundings. "You could get whacked by a tree branch, or fall off at a tight turn, or get swept off by the wind! Are you mad?"

The boy laughed. "It's bewitched."

"What?"

"If you come near the edge-"

"Oh there is no way I'm coming any closer than this. In fact I think I'm going to just turn around and go back to my family. This is too dangerous, even for me," Lily protested.

"You can't fall off or get swept away. If you'd listen to me, you'd know that there is an invisible barrier right here along this rail," he explained quickly. "Here, I'll show you."

The boy walked towards the rail, pulling a bronze coin out of his pocket. He looked back at her and proceeded to throw the knut at the area above the metal railing. It bounced back, landing near Lily's feet. She stared down at it for a moment before, "Wow! Neat! I'm totally going to get James and tell him about this! Then we could threaten to push Al off, except nothing would happen because of that awesome invisibleness!"

"But then this wouldn't be a secret hiding place anymore. It's probably the best on the train," the boy said quickly.

Lily laughed. "Oh we stopped playing that game a long time ago."

The boy nodded. "Why aren't you back with them? I saw you all sitting together when I was passing to come here."

Lily sighed, relaxing her grip on the doorknob while moving closer to the boy. "Can you keep a secret?" she asked.

The boy smiled. "Yes, I still haven't told anyone your last one."

She looked at him questioningly before continuing, "I don't know anything about magic. Nothing. Zero. I don't want to be a failure because everyone expects so much of me with my last name being Potter and all. James and Al are doing fine in their lessons. Sure, they slip up in some classes, but over all they are really smart. James is on the Gryffindor Quidditch team and still manages to get good marks. If Quidditch was a class, I'd be fine, but unfortunately, I can't play until next year. So, I have nothing to be good at this year. What if they kick me out? And why are you laughing?"

The boy stopped laughing and was silent for a moment. "You just say so much so fast," he said.

Lily opened her mouth, and then shut it, blushing. "But I guess I can see why you're nervous. I don't know a lot about magic either. Sometimes when I was little, I would make things happen, but my father would always tell me to try not to. He said young magic was dangerous and uncontrollable. He said Hogwarts will teach us all how to control what magic we already have inside of us," the boy said.

"I used to be able to make things move. Like I could make the float across the room into my hands. I also managed to change a pair of my shoes black once. They were a hideous bright purple before, and there was no way I was going to wear those," Lily remembered.

"Well then I'd say you will probably be good at Transfiguration and Charms," the boy said.

Lily's stomach rumbled. "Yeesh, do they ever feed people on this train?"

"You probably have missed the trolley by now. It has a whole bunch of sweet snacks on it. Usually the woman stays in the middle of the train when her rounds are over with."

Lily nodded. "Well I think I'm going to get something to eat."

The boy nodded. "I would suggest the Pumpkin Pasties."

Lily smiled as she grasped the door knob again. "Thanks."

She took a step out of the door before turning back. "Hey what was your name?"

"Last call for the trolley in this car dears!" a woman's voice rang out from the near distance.

"Ah food!" Lily gasped, remembering.

And she was gone with a sparkle of red hair. "My name is Scorpious Malfoy," the boy whispered, looking out once more at the passing scenery.

Xxx

It wasn't until her third year at Hogwarts that Lily learned the identity of her blonde hide and seek friend. It wasn't until her fourth year that she saw past her family's old prejudices and began to see him as a male version of herself: a young wizard who was defined by a past he was not alive during nor had any control over. They used this as a platform to build their friendship. In the middle of her fifth year she began to notice the beauty of his eyes and the sweet caress of his voice. By the middle of their sixth year they were madly in love. At the end of that year, Lily learned the power of words and selflessness, and played a significant role in the breaking of her own heart.

A/N: Well that was chapter 2! I hope you all liked it! This will be the last one of them being younger. I feel that I should probably clarify some ages since I have changed them from the epilouge a bit. I will put all of the ages in context with this chapter, so Lily's 1st year. Teddy has graduated (about 19 or so). Victoire is in her 7th year. Rose and James are both in their 4th years, and Rose is a bit older than James. Albus is in his 3rd year. Hugo, Domenique, Lily and Scorpious are all first years. Lily's other cousins are not really important to this story line, but I imagined Lily being the youngest of all of them. I think I may have messed this up in the first chapter, I'll just change it later. Thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

_6 years later, August before Lily's 7__th__ year_

Harry looked around his daughter's room. It was neat and orderly, a rare occurrence. In fact, he could only remember one other time that her room had been this clean. It was for three weeks last summer during a fight she was having with her best friend and cousin, Domenique Weasley. Every day for those three weeks her room had been immaculate.

He turned his attention to the small writing desk positioned under her window. Being the youngest of the family, Lily inherited furniture from her brothers when they out grew them. It was about time though, Harry thought, that she got her own full sized desk. He noticed her Hogwarts letter fluttering from the breeze on the corner of her desk. It was her final one, as it was the last one that would be delivered to the family. He picked up the letter and noticed that it was unusually thick.

The top sheet of parchment was the usual book list. Many of the books were the very same that he had used during his days at Hogwarts. This was something he had hoped would have changed over the years. Magic was advancing, yet the school book selection remained the same. Harry then reminded himself that most of the advancements were being made in higher magic, kinds that were probably too advanced for students of Hogwarts or that covered subjects not offered at the school. It was something he was trying to change. He didn't see why students at Hogwarts shouldn't be given more options when choosing courses, especially when they reached their final two years. It would allow them to more accurately asses their desires to pursue certain careers, or even make their ideas more specific. He returned his attention to the book list and felt his face burn a bit as he saw his own book listed as one of the optional supplemental texts for the N.E.W.T level Defense Against the Dark Arts class.

The next sheet was a letter informing students of the importance of the NEWTs that they would be taking at the end of the year. Harry had never taken his own, but he heard from Hermione that they had been pretty brutal. He felt a twinge of pity for his youngest daughter who hated exams and had broken down right before taking her O. in her fifth year.

The next sheet Harry read with a feeling of pride in his chest. She had been named Quidditch captain for the second year in a row, taking over once her brother James had left the school. She had led Gryffindor to a victorious season last year, and he hoped that this year would have the same out come. If there was one thing that Lily loved in life, it was Quidditch. When she was barely three years old he had started taking her to see her mother play on the Harpies as a chaser. When Ginny had stopped playing two years later, she still attended any home matches for the team. She learned the secrets of being a chaser from her mother, and it was the position she had played during all of the family games. It came as quite a shock when she owled home a month into her second year saying that she had made the team as a seeker. Harry had also felt a surge of pride at this piece of news, and had attended all of her matches without fail. She flew very well and always looked like she knew exactly what was going on around her. She was very in tune with her teammates as well as her opponents. He had actually given her his old cloak for this purpose, to get to know her opponents. She wrote to him telling him about the flight patterns each team was flying for each season. She hid under his cloak for various practices throughout the year, a silent observer.

Harry flipped that letter to the back of the pile and started down at the final sheet of parchment.

_Dear Lily Potter, _

_ I am pleased to inform you that you have been selected to be Head Girl during your final year at Hogwarts. This title comes with great honor, as well as a great responsibility. It recognizes your extreme involvement in school activities and your attention to school rules. _

_ If you choose to accept this position, it will be your and the Head Boy's duty to coordinate prefect meetings and nightly rounds, as well as the annual Halloween Ball. You will be expected to encourage others and keep peace and unity between the houses during the up coming year. _

_ You will have your own, private room, which will be located off of the Head's common area. The head boy will also have his own room there. It will be quiet to ensure adequate study and meeting times, and it will also have it's own mini library and records room. You will also have access to the Prefect's bathroom. Enjoy and use these luxuries wisely. _

_ I am aware that you will be filling your post as Quidditch captain again and that you will also be striving to do your best on your upcoming N.E.. Even with these added responsibilities, I am confident that you will do an exceptional job as Head Girl. _

_ Please detach the bottom of this form and indicate whether or not you accept this position as soon as you are able. I look forward to an owl with a favorable response. I will contact you once the Head Boy has accepted his post. _

_ Deputy Headmaster of Hogwarts,_

_ Neville Longbottom_

She must have already sent in her response as the bottom of the letter was slightly jagged from her sloppy taring. When had she received this news? It wasn't like Lily at all to keep something this big from the family, especially him. He looked around the room sadly. He and Lily had always shared a special bond, but at times during this past summer it felt like he hardly knew her at all. It was not like her to finish a day without telling her father everything that had happened. Maybe this is what happened to the relationships between a girl and her father when she grew up. Harry made a note to ask Ginny about it later. Or, perhaps that was not the best idea. She was always jealous of the special bond that Harry and Lily shared.

He set the letter down and continued to look around her room. He spied her robes laying on her bed with two badges shimmering in the sun light, casting light spots onto the wall above her bed. Harry smiled, proud that she had chosen to accept both positions. He hoped she would make an announcement to the rest of the family soon. Lily was never known to be able to keep big news or secrets for very long. She was probably just waiting until she was sure of her decision on whether or not to accept. Ginny was sure to be thrilled, as would James, about becoming Quidditch captain once again. Al would be proud of his little sister for taking his spot as one of the heads of Hogwarts.

Harry left her room suddenly, ashamed of his nosy parent actions. Lily would come to him when she was ready to talk about what was going on in her life. He just hoped it wasn't anything too serious. He clenched his fist as thoughts of a stupid Hogwarts boy breaking her heart, or worse, touching his little girl. But, Lily had never said anything about a boy.

xXx

_Dead. Everyone was dead. Lily sat holding James as his blood poured out over her lap. She could see her father over in the corner, eyes lifeless. She was crying. Everything had gone so wrong. How could this have happened? _

_She heard someone in the next room. "Scorpius?" she yelled. "Please tell me that you are okay! Oh please!" she cried out, scrambling to get up off of the floor. _

_A figure cast a shadow in the doorway, too tall to be the one she was looking for. "Who are you?" she asked desperately. "What has happened here?"_

"_A power that rivals the darkness of the past will be born into the family of the one who was chosen to save the world from evil. Fathered by a previous enemy, the new power knows no limits nor destiny," the voice spoke. It was a cold, harsh voice, like none other she had ever heard. _

"_Where did you hear that from? Why are you here!" she demanded. _

"_Proving that I have no limits and that I have the power to choose my own destiny, mother!" he laughed._

_Lily saw him raise his wand-_

She bolted straight up in her bed, shaking, feeling her cold face with her hands. She was probably as pale as a ghost. She took a minute to calm down and control he shaking limbs. The illuminated clock on her side table told her that it was six in the morning. Lily stepped out of bed once she was sure her legs would support her, and she made her way to the bathroom just down the hall.

She quietly closed the door behind her and prepared the only remedy she knew to dull her never ending coldness: a nice hot bath. Lily had never taken a lot of baths as a child as never had the patience to sit in one spot for more than five minutes. Now she hardly had the energy to pull herself out of bed in the morning. She had never really appreciated how much energy it took to be _the _Lily Potter. She had made it through the whole summer without her father or anyone else approaching her asking her if anything was up, so she must be doing a somewhat passable job of being herself. If anyone would have noticed her poor charade, her father would have. Then again, he and her mother were the only ones that spent much time at the house with her. James was always out and about with his girlfriend, spending random late nights at her flat in London. Al was occupied with his job at St. Mungo's Hospital researching new and better remedies for various ailments. Neither were home too often, and her mother definitely wouldn't be able to see that something was bothering her. She had never been good at guessing Lily's mood correctly.

Ginny, however, had noticed her waking up at random hours in the night to grab tea from the kitchen and had also heard her awake in a panic on nights early on in the summer. Lily had made sure to put silencing spells on her room at night after one particular incident when she had woken her parents with a shrill scream. It was only at night, in these sorts of nightmares that she lost it. At least she was only experiencing them once or twice a week now, instead of four like she had at the beginning of the summer. Each one was slightly different, as far as the setting was concerned. They seemed to spring out of other dreams she was having, as a constant reminder. The only recurring elements were Scorpius Malfoy, the man who called himself her son, death, and misery. Her dreams were like one of those choose your own ending books, except there were no happy endings to choose from like there used to be. It was literally a large blank that her mind filled at night, one tragedy after the next.

Lily had spent a lot of time pouring over these dreams and kept track of them all mentally. She wrote down nothing, nor told anyone of them. Domenique had been the only one that knew about her relationship with Scorpius, and she would be the only one that Lily would tell about her heart break. She had felt excited and weak in the face of love, something that she only felt she should share with her best friend. There was also the complicated past between her father and the entire Malfoy family. This had been the major reason she and Scorpius had never told more people.

It wasn't as if her father still hated Scorpius' father, Draco, but something told her that he would be a little more than upset if he had found out about their intimate relationship. Harry and Draco had hated each other throughout their days at Hogwarts and Draco had fought on the side trying to kill her father. For some reason unknown to Lily, her father had saved Draco's life a few times during the final year of the war. If it had been her, she would have let her enemy get what was coming to him. However, her father was a compassionate being and letting his enemy live saved his own life in the end. Note to self: what goes around comes around.

She was glad now that she and Scorpius had never revealed their relationship to more people. Not only did it save them from many awkward stares and conversations, it also saved them from painful questions and pity hugs. She was not looking forward to filling in Domenique about what happened, and she couldn't imagine having to tell more than one person. The incident had happened right before the end of term. Domenique knew that something was wrong with her cousin, but was smart enough not to bring it up herself. She knew that Lily would come to her when she was ready. That was what was so good about her Domenique, she didn't pry unless Lily invited her to do so. Unfortunately, there had been no time for her to talk to Domenique alone, and she certainly wasn't going to do it via letters or at family functions.

Lily needed her cousin to understand and help her sift through her thoughts, reassure her that she and Scorpius had made the right choice. Right now, it seemed like an awful choice. He was the only other person who knew what the prophecy contained, and therefore was the only one who could possibly comfort her through these horrific nightmares. However, he was the one person she could not talk to.

She had resorted to finding various ways to keep herself busy. She found a job at her Uncle George's shop for the summer. When she wasn't working she spent most of her time playing Quidditch with her brothers. Lily was doing an okay job of keeping herself occupied at home, but it would be harder to keep herself focused at Hogwarts, where they would be together again. All she could do was hope for a lot of homework and to keep her title as Quidditch captain.

To her luck, Hogwarts answered her prayers, with an added bonus even. A few weeks ago, she arrived home from work to find a Hogwarts owl sitting on her open window sill, a very thick envelope in its beak. She had been making Quidditch captain again, thank goodness. She had also been made Head Girl, which had surprised her to no end. After much consideration she had decided to accept the position.

If being asked to be Head Girl was a surprise, she had no idea what to call the letter that came a few days ago. She had begun to grow annoyed with whoever was chosen to be Head Boy. She had sent her response in almost right away, but he obviously had not. Either that or he had backed down, causing Professor Longbottom to have to choose another candidate. Now that she knew who it was, she wasn't sure whether to scream, cry or smile. At the breakfast table where she had first read the letter, she had let out some sort of mangled squeak which she had tried to pass off as choking on a piece of toast.

_James took it upon himself to find the cause of his sister's strange outburst. He lunged across the table and swiped the letter from her grasp. "Hey! Stop!" she had shouted, meekly. _

_James read the letter to himself, and raised his eyebrows. "I probably would have had the same reaction sis," he said. _

_Al had appeared, reading over his brother's shoulders. "Don't judge James. He was always a very smart kid. Had some talent on the pitch as well," he commented. _

_Her father had now entered the room and Lily buried her burning cheeks in her hands. It was bad enough she had to find out so suddenly. It was even worse not to have the time to properly process the news. Harry's face grew stern. "So you'll be working with Malfoy's son then," he stated. _

_Lily nodded, raising her head back up to eat the rest of her breakfast. She had decided not to acknowledge the fact any more than she already had. She would be working with Scorpius Malfoy, and she would have to deal with it. Somehow. _

Lily groaned in the tub as she took in the news once more. The one thing she couldn't have would be right in front of her face, all year long. He would be in their common room, in their bathroom, in their library. But she would be close to him again, something she had desperately wanted all summer. She was not sure how to feel about this fact either. She had strong feelings for him still, which had actually grown since they decided to end it. She could not take back their decision though. This year would require strength like no other.

Fear was the other part of her feelings. Fear of what could be and what actually would come to be. The fear of making a wrong decision. Fear of the emptiness that had taken over the feeling of being whole. Fear had foreign and unfamiliar to Lily, but now it was becoming a close friend.

She had debated that whole day whether or not to write to Professor Longbottom and tell him she had changed her mind. She had written a resignation letter, when she realized that it was a statement of weakness and insecurity, things that Lily did not tolerate in herself. No, she would learn to be strong this year. She burned the evidence.

It was this reminder of strength that she used to pull herself out of the tub and start her day. It was one of the last days of her summer holidays, and there was much to do. She would worry about these things when the time came.

A/N: Well not much to say! I hope you are enjoying everything! I'm still working out some stuff in chapter four, but hopefully it will be up shortly!


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

He adjusted the shining Head Boy badge on his robes once more. He felt silly, modeling the thing in front of his wardrobe mirror, but he also felt a surge of pride each time it caught the light from his sky light window. He wanted to make sure it was something he really wanted before he replied back to Professor Longbottom. Being Head Boy was a great responsibility and honor, as the letter had stated. It was nothing less than what he had been striving for during his whole existence at Hogwarts. Be the role model of the younger students, guide them the way a previous Head Boy had guided him. The power to ensure that his last year would in fact be his best year.

No matter how much he wanted this badge, Scorpius also realized something else he wanted, something this badge would take away from him: his freedom to disappear into the bland stone work of the castle. Finish up his last year quickly, quietly, and in peace. This badge would catch the light streaming through the windows of Hogwarts and hit the eyes of his fellow students as he walked through the halls. He would always be visible. Except when he was in the solitude of his Head Boy quarters, something he greatly coveted. A perfect hide away from life. However, the Head Boy was supposed to be a visible part of the school at all times. A constant reminder of what everyone should strive to be.

So what did he want more? To disappear or to be seen by everyone? He had visited the Ministry of Magic just this past spring. The man he had shadowed for the day had said that Scorpius had been invited because of his outstanding Hogwarts record and his expressed interest in a position in the Ministry. It was true that he had been strongly considering pursuing some sort of job in the Ministry, but he had never expressed this desire to anyone except for Lily. It had been a strange day all together. The man seemed to know a great deal about Scorpious, which at the time he assumed was because of his own father's activity in the Ministry. It was also the day that he had discovered the bloody prophecy. The bane of his current existence. Damn his curiosity and damn that Ministry official.

"_Alright Mr. Malfoy, here it is, my office!" Tragsman said nervously, throwing a glance over his shoulder. _

_Scorpius smiled politely as he entered the Ministry official's office. He sat in the puffy royal blue arm chair across from Tragsman who seated himself in the high backed red chair on the other side of the desk. Scorpius noticed that the man's desk was helplessly cluttered. He saw old memos laying here and there, previous meeting agendas, letters, and pictures scattered without rhyme or reason. How was it that he found anything? He wasn't sure what the man's official job title was, but he was positive any job at the Ministry required a clean organized desk. Of all people for him to shadow..._

"_So," the man started, snapping Scorpius out of his judgmental thoughts. "You have a desire to fill one of these offices one day?"_

_Scorpius nodded. "If I am correct, your father works in the office of International Relations?" he asked. Scorpius nodded and he continued on. "Are you interested in his line of work?" Tragsman asked. _

"_No sir. I've always had an interest in the law branch of the Ministry. Hermione Weasley's work with abolishing out dated laws is particularly interesting and I consider it a worth while movement in the Ministry," Scorpius stated. It was a rather professional statement, probably too much so for the likes of the man sitting across from him, but he did not want to come off as the typical teen. _

"_Ah yes, very interesting work. Based on your marks at school I figure you would be perfect for that type of work. I am sorry to say that I am not really involved in the law department," he said, rustling through some of the papers on his desk._

_That was quite obvious, Scorpius thought to himself. "What type of work do you do, sir?" he inquired. _

_The man fidgeted for a moment. "I-I work downstairs in the Department of Mysteries. It used to be quite large up until the middle of the previous wizarding war, however, now it is rather small," he said, eyes roaming to the slightly open door of his office. "Please forgive me for not being able to talk at lengths about my work, strictly forbidden, you know," he laughed nervously, looking over his shoulder towards the half opened window. _

_Just then a note came soaring into his office. He did not look surprised, and proceeded to grab the note and read it rather quickly. "Ah please excuse me for a minute," he said before rushing out of his office. _

_'What a strange man,' Scorpius thought. How strange it was that the Ministry would have him shadow someone who couldn't even talk about his job. He twitched nervously in his seat before resuming his visual comb of the office. The shelves and book cases were a tremendous amount neater than the desk in front of him. Perhaps it had just been a busy week at the office. There were pictures of Tragsman with his family and with Kingsley Shaklebolt, the Minister of Magic. There were many strange books, some look ancient, others brand new. He squinted his eyes slightly in order to read some of the titles. There was quite a variety he noted, including "Magic is Magical- the road to rediscovering a very magical me" by Gilderoy Lockheart, "Fantastic Frauds- How do you know your prophecy is real?" by Venus Mathello, and "100 Defensive Spells and When to Use Them" by Harry Potter. _

_Scorpius's heart skipped when he read his girlfriend's surname. Even though he had written a book on defensive spells, it was common knowledge that Harry Potter knew a lot about offensive battle tactics as well. You couldn't become head of the Auror department without the stomach to attack dark wizards and witches. His stomach churned at this thought. By no means had he and Lily been in a relationship for a very long time, but it would be rather naïve of him to think that they could go on much longer without someone noticing and telling Mr. Potter. He and Lily had both agreed that they wanted to be the ones to tell their families when the time came. Even though he thoroughly agreed, he was still girlishly nervous about that day. _

_He tore his eyes away from the leather bound book, and that's when he saw it. The small orb, glittering in the small amount of sunlight that was coming in through the small window of the office. It was sitting on some sort of wooden pedestal with three clawed legs. There was a white tag on the front that read, "Scorpius Malfoy." It matched the handwriting he had seen on many notes on the man's desk. _

_Scorpius groaned. They should have just put a sign reading, 'Touch Me!' on it, like in that muggle story of the girl who always ate anything that said 'Eat Me'. What a silly girl, and what a silly mess she had gotten herself into. However, he suddenly found himself holding the stupid thing, letting an eerie voice fill his ears. _

"_A power that rivals the darkness of the past will be born into the family of the one who was chosen to save the world from evil. Fathered by the son of a previous enemy, the new power knows no limits nor destiny-" _

_Just then, Scorpius heard Tragsman's footsteps outside of the office. He quickly put the orb back in its place and was returning hastily to his chair when Tragsman entered his office. There was a lack of surprise on his face, an almost knowing look about the curiosity of teenage wizards. Scorpius noticed the man's eyes linger for a moment near the bookshelf where the orb sat. He smiled slightly as he walked back over to his desk, apologizing for the time he was out and added that he hoped Scorpius had found some way to amuse himself. _

The rest of that day had been completely un-noteworthy. It was actually rather boring and dull. Yet sitting in that comfy office and knowing that there were so many other interesting branches of the Ministry had made him want a position in the office even more. A desire that would be more easily obtained with the role of Head Boy on his resume. Scorpius sighed as he took off his robes. He couldn't deny himself everything he wanted in life, especially something he had been wanting since his early days at school. He penned a favorable response back to Professor Longbottom and sent it off with his owl. He felt guilty as he watched the owl fly away. He had been sitting on this decision for a very long time, and he hoped that the deputy headmaster had not decided to give the post to another student. Wouldn't that be lovely?

Xxx

There was always a catch, a great big juicy catch in every seemingly good thing that happened in his life. The natural balance in the average wizard's life so that it may not be more exceptional than his fellow peers' lives. And what a catch this was. Scorpius had swam straight into the dangerous zone of the pond while chasing a shiny object, because that is where all shiny objects lead you know. Professor Longbottom had written back informing him that his partner for the year was to be Lily Potter. The girl he had spent his whole summer hopelessly trying to talk down in his mind and forget. The source of all of his problems, and the girl he was still madly in love with. Oh the cruel jokes of life.

Scorpius knew that they had made the right choice in breaking everything off between them. He may not have had marriage on his mind with Lily, but he was very attracted to her. Her kisses and touches were heaven, but there was always a part of him that wanted more. He longed for all of her, longed for them to give themselves to each other during a night of pure bliss. And this is where the obvious danger was.

If it had been any other relationship, any other girl, this summer would have been a lot easier. Scorpius had been in a few relationships, but he didn't consider any of them to be important or special. He had liked each girl he went out with at one point or another, but after a time they became dull to him. It was like none of them had backbones. Everything he liked, they suddenly liked. If he picked up a habit he knew they did not care for, they were suddenly fine with it. This was, eventually, the ultimate test in any of his relationships. If a girl did not complain or argue with him about his new habit, he knew that she just wanted someone to call her boyfriend. He did not tolerate this, and the girl found herself in search of a new boyfriend to call her own. If they stood up to him he stayed with her and further assessed the situation. How did she fight against his new habit? Did she seem overly controlling while trying to do so? If he found that they were controlling, he took control and said the final words. Being controlling meant that the girl was trying to morph him into her perfect idea of a boyfriend, and he was not a very pliable chunk of clay.

Lily had been different. Lily seemed to be her own person, loud and proud. Unafraid to confront differences between them, yet understanding and accepting enough to let those differences exist-once she understood them. He and Lily had quite a few differences between them, yet none significant enough to come between them. In fact, one of the few things they did agree on was their choice to end their relationship. And when Lily made a choice, there was no rough drafting or reviewing; her choice was final. No matter how much it broke his heart, Scorpius knew that it was right.

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed, and I hope all of the flashbacks aren't confusing. I was originally going to start with the begining of their relationship, but I really wanted to get into my major plot line. So I'll give all of the necessary info from their past in flashback form. Don't worry, Lily and Scorpius will actually appear in a chapter together soon! Not in the next chapter, but the one after. I promise! Thank you for the lovely reviews!


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Lily tapped her foot impatiently. It was now 12:12, almost fifteen minutes later than Domenique had agreed to meet her outside of the ice cream parlor. The August sun was beating down on her, and she could feel her hands growing warm and sweaty against the inside of her elbows. She uncrossed her arms and swung them at her sides in an attempt to cool them off.

After a few passes, her right hand came into contact with some cloth, and she found herself softly apologizing to the middle aged wizard she had just slapped. She huffed and walked away from the building, remembering why she never made an effort to arrive precisely on time when meeting up with friends. Being the first one on the scene sucked.

There was no real reason why her cousin should be late. Lily had purposely chosen one of the first places the eye could see after entering Diagon Alley through the wall behind the Leaky Cauldron. This was not for simplicity's sake, but rather because her cousin was an avid window shopper, but not the normal kind. She was not the average browser who only stops and presses her nose on the glass of a favorite shop or of a favorite past time. No, Domenique's nose print was always left on every window of every shop. The girl had an interest in everything and anything from broomsticks to quills, dresses to chess sets. Every coin in her pocket whispered 'spend me,' and passing up sale signs was most definitely a sin.

Lily spent a few more minutes burning a whole into the brick wall entrance with her eyes before she felt a thin arm twist itself around hers. She looked to her side to see her cousin smiling next to her. "I'm sorry I'm late Lil," she held up a shopping bag. "I promise it was all completely necessary."

Lily scoffed. "Oh I'm sure it was," she said as she headed them towards the ice cream shop doors.

"Oh no ice cream today. I changed our plans. I have plenty of sweets and treats right here in this bag," her cousin smiled.

"What was wrong with my ice cream plan?" Lily whined.

"Whatever it is that you are finally going to tell me today is obviously important because you wouldn't spill a drop of it in any of your letters. You only said that something was wrong and that you would tell me later," her cousin started, turning them back towards the brick wall. "I am tired of waiting for answers. So if you couldn't tell me in a letter which I alone would have read, then you cannot possibly tell me the tale in a crowded ice cream shop."

Lily sighed. She did say she would tell the whole story, and there was no use in really putting it off any longer. "Alright, what's the plan Dom?" she asked.

Her cousin held up a little brass key attached to a key chain of a black, cracked cauldron. Lily nodded and they walked through the opening that had formed in the brick wall. Her cousin smiled at the barman as they walked past the empty bar and up the narrow flight of stairs. "I think it was room seventeen," she muttered.

She handed Lily the bag she was carrying when they reached the door. Lily heard the door click open after Domenique had played with the key for a few moments and they proceeded inside. It was a standard room at the inn, one double bed, one wardrobe, bathroom, table, chairs, arm chair and linens. On the table was a steaming black tea pot and two white tea cups. There were also matching containers for sugar and honey. A small basket holding a few rolls sat off to the side of the table. Domenique proceeded to sit down and pour herself a cup of tea. Lily did the same, contemplating in her mind what she was going to tell her cousin.

She had always confided everything in Domenique, partly because she could never keep things to herself and partly because she wanted her cousin's input. Lily wasn't very experienced when it came to boys and liked to know what she was doing right or wrong, and what to expect during her relationship. Domenique had had her share of romantic relations and was the perfect mentor to her cousin. This, however, was not a happy matter. Sure, she and Scorpius had had their squabbles during their time together, but this was different. This wasn't a fight. This wasn't a typical break up. They were both in love and quite happy together.

"_Scorpius Malfoy! You have been quieter than my great grandmother's grave. What is on your mind tonight?" Lily asked her lover who laid in the grass beside her. _

_The lake had been beautiful that night. The moon was reflected on its calm waters, a full shining orb suspended in the sky. The sounds of the coming night serenaded them as they laid close to the shore and away from the prying eyes of their peers. It was their usual night spot, weather and other circumstances permitting, and Lily often thought that there was no better place in the world. Mostly because she was there with him. _

"_Have you ever thought about how it would feel if someone close to you died?" he asked after a moment. _

_Lily was taken aback. Of all of the things they had talked about over the months, death had not been one of them. She thought seriously for a moment before answering him. "I guess I have. When I was young I used to have nightmares about people in my family getting hurt or dying. During our lessons on the last war I also thought about it a lot. I had a lot of family members I never knew die."_

_Scorpius was silent for a moment. "What if there had been a way to stop all of that pain and suffering? What if when you went to family parties you could laugh and joke with those members of your family?" he asked. _

"_I would do anything to spend an evening with Uncle Fred. I could meet Teddy's parents and maybe come to a conclusion as to why he is so strange!" she laughed lightly. She stopped when she saw Scorpius's still serious face. "Really, what is up with all of these questions? Yeah, what happened was awful, but there is nothing we can do about it all now."_

"_We can stop it from happening again," he whispered. _

"_How do you mean? Do you know someone? Know of something being plotted by your father's evil friends?" she asked. _

"_My father's friends are NOT evil!" he said angrily. _

"_Okay I know, I'm sorry. But you do have to admit that Zambini is a scary looking bloke," she tried to joke. _

"_Can we please have a serious conversation here?" _

_Lily quieted. "Yes, I'm sorry. It's just really hard for me to comprehend something like that ever happening again. I mean, I could never imagine living through it all. The stories that my father tells me sometimes..." she shook her head and squeezed Scorpius's hand tightly in hers. _

"_You remember that trip I took to the Ministry last week?"_

_Lily nodded. "With that disorganized man who had nothing to do with the wizarding law branch."_

"_I found something in his office, a prophecy."_

_Lily's eyes widened. "No way! Who's was it?" she asked. _

_Scorpius just stared at her. "This has to do with us, doesn't it?" she asked, smile fading. _

_It was Scorpius's turn to nod this time. "It had my name on it," he started. "It was across the room, but seconds after I saw it I found myself holding it with this voice in my head."_

_Lily stared at him, waiting for him to continue. He didn't. Instead he rolled over on top of her, propping himself on his elbows, and captured her lips in a breath taking kiss. Lily gasped as he forcibly took control of her lips. Her hands flew to his hair, pulling him even closer to her. He laid his body gently on top of hers, hands caressing her sides roughly. After several minutes he broke away gasping. Lily found herself smiling softly to herself. Scorpius had always been full of surprises. One minute he was talking about the blackest subject of them all, and the next he was carrying her to heaven. She opened her eyes and saw his eyes closed, his face expressing deep pain. She was back on earth again. _

"_Scor, what is it?" she demanded, softly. _

"_I think that was goodbye, Lily," he said in a shaky voice. _

"_What are you talking about? Seriously, what is going on here?" she almost yelled. _

"_Lily, I love you so much. I know we haven't talked about getting married or staying together or anything after Hogwarts. I mean, I can hardly even think about next year," he paused, looking at her confused, hurt and slightly angry face. "Now that the end is here, all I can see is your face next to mine forever."_

"_What are you even saying? You've gone from breaking up with me, to telling me you love me, to telling me you've never really considered getting married, to ending with you see yourself with me forever."_

"_The prophecy said that our child would be the next dark lord. I don't know about you, but I can't put all of my friends and family through that, through what your family and my family both went through," he gasped. _

"_Okay, but that was just a stupid glass orb. I mean, you don't even like Divination and all of that bullshit," she said, practically crying. _

_She could see it was painful for Scorpius to see her like this, it was painful for her to feel like this. It wasn't like her to get upset and emotional this quickly, but this was so sudden, and most definitely unexpected. "A power that rivals the darkness of the past will be born into the family of the one who was chosen to save the world from evil. Fathered by a previous enemy, the new power knows no limits nor destiny," he recited. _

"But if it knows no destiny, then couldn't it have also been a good thing?" Domenique asked after taking several minutes to consider what Lily had just told her.

"We talked about that together, Scor and I. We were out on the grounds way past curfew. It was that night I told you I had been in the hospital wing," Lily said, wiping her eyes quickly with her fingers.

"I knew you weren't there. You normally don't even acknowledge when you are sick, let alone seek medical help."

"Yeah well, I just couldn't talk about it," Lily sighed. "It's hard enough right now even."

"You guys didn't even know if you were going to be together after school. You never mentioned any talk of getting married or of him being 'the one.'"

"I know, we didn't know if we were going to last after school, and we never gave much thought to marriage in the interest of not over complicating things," said Lily.

"So you could have let your relationship just run its natural course. Sure, it may have still ended in heartbreak, but at least it would have been more controlled and you probably would have seen it coming," Domenique commented.

"Yeah, but you don't have to be married to have a child, you don't even have to be in love," Lily stated. "Ultimately we decided it would be too much of a risk. We both have important people in our lives right now, people we would never want to see hurt or dead. We both also have people in our lives who lived through the horrors of the past war, and we decided that we didn't want to put them through that pain again and didn't want to experience it ourselves. Our relationship was young compared to others. The heartbreak of a teenage romance would be much easier to get over than the heartbreak of the death of my best friend."

Domenique stared at her with her big, sad doe eyes. "But the prophecy never specifically stated that it would be a bad thing. Wait, just listen!" she mused.

Lily cut her off. "Please Dom, he and I talked about it for a while that night before doing anything. I don't want to talk about it anymore."

Domenique looked astounded. "But Lil, talking is what you do best!" she tried.

Lily didn't smile. "Not about this. I'm done talking about it. I just want to get through this year and get on with my life."

"It's going to be hard on you, seeing him every day, isn't it?" her cousin asked quietly, stirring her stone cold tea.

Lily felt her stomach churn. She had been trying not to face this reality since she had found out about her and Scorpius being head girl and boy together. She shrugged and reached over to the bag of sweets Domenique had brought along. Normally the sight of chocolate frogs would cure any mood she was in, but not this time. "You know you don't have to stay in the head's dorm. Every year the head boy and girl are given the choice. Most choose to in order to get all of their work done, or just to have their own room," Domenique stated. "In fact, I'm demanding that you stay in the dorm with me. It's our last year and it's going to be our best, no matter what."

Lily smiled, relived that Domenique had brought this forgotten fact to her attention. She did not have to sleep in the head dorms. In fact, she didn't have to use the facility at all. Meaning, the only time she would have to see Scorpius would be during their meetings. As quickly as her heart rose, it sunk again, remembering how much she truly loved Scorpius's company, not just as a boyfriend, but as a best friend. Without him, she would just have Domenique and their friend Jocelyn, a sixth year in Ravenclaw.

"Hey," Domeinque said, reaching her hand across the table to hold onto Lily's. "Everything is going to be okay. You never know, seeing him and becoming just friends again might be easier than you think."

Lily gave a shallow laugh. _Doubtful, _she thought. Then she sighed. "I guess we'll just see what happens. I'll have Quidditch to keep me entertained, not to mention my NEWTs."

"Speaking of Quidditch," Domenique said with a smirk on her face.

Lily's eyes shot up and she found herself smiling. "I'm tired of playing keeper." Domenique announced.

"But you're the best in the school! You can't just quit on me! I won't allow it!" Lily screamed.

"Hey, relax tiger and let me finish," she said, eyebrows raised at Lily's outburst. "I think I've been keeper long enough to know all of the best chaser moves and to have realized their errors."

There was a long pause. "I'm listening," Lily coaxed.

"So I want to play chaser yeah? I bet Hugo is tired of sitting on the bench, and he's actually pretty good. Put him in my place. It will be golden."

Lily contemplated for a moment before answering, "Okay, we'll see what happens."

The girls laughed. Domenique spent the rest of the afternoon distracting Lily and keeping a smile on her face. It was only when Lily slipped back into her own room, alone, and laid down in bed that a memory she had not told her cousin replayed in her head; the actual good bye and pain of heartbreak.

_A few moments of silence passed between them. They had run out of things to say to each other, and Lily was racking her brain for any coherent sentence, anything at all, just to say. Her mind could no longer form thoughts, her mouth could no longer form words. Her body grew cold as she looked into his deep gray eyes. Her heart was plummeting into her stomach, and her stomach was burying itself in the ground below her feet. "So this it it then, huh?" she said numbly. It figured that was the sentence her mind would finally be able to piece together. _

_She watched her lover nod as he grabbed her hands in his. He drew them up to his face and planted a tender kiss on each one before looking back into her eyes. They were burning now, holding back a flood of tears. She knew then that this was not going to be the typical teenage heart break. Scorpius leaned in for one, final kiss. As their hands separated Lily imagined that they were pulling her heart in half. At least her hand was doing an equal amount of taring. _

"_Goodbye." It was barely a whisper. Quite a wonder that she had heard it at all. Lily draped the invisibility cloak over her broken body. She saw tears falling from his eyes as she forced herself to turn back to the school. At first she walked, but she broke into a run as she felt the pressure of her tears beat strongly behind her eyes. She turned into an empty class room on the third floor and preformed a silencing charm on the walls. Only then did she give into the power of her grief. The tears flowed from her heart to her eyes, and eventually onto the dusty stone floor of her present reality.

* * *

_A/N: I'm not completely satisfied with this chapter, but I want to be able to work on 6 so I'm just posting it. It's very likely I will come back and edit later on down the road. Thanks for your feedback!


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Lily hastily threw her new Hogwarts materials inside of her trunk on top of her things from last year...and the year before that. Her Aunt Hermione was a lifesaver, really, her undetectable expanding charms were really top notch. Each of the Weasley and Potter children had the charm on their trunks so that they would never have to limit the number of books they brought to and from school. Apparently it was a huge distress to her aunt back in her school days when one summer she packed all of her books only to realized there was no more room for her clothes and cauldron. She had to leave five books at home that year, and it was seriously dreadful.

Lily did have a pretty good number of books in her trunk as well, but that was only because she had never bothered to clean them out at the end of the year. "What if I need one for reference for some odd paper I have to do this year!" she argued with her father as he tried to lug her extremely heavy trunk down the stairs last year. It was then that he added his own feather light charm to the trunk, making it a masterpiece. The truth was, Lily thought of her trunk as her own life size, tangible, interactive scrap book. At the end of this year she could empty all of its contents and reminisce over the good and bad times at school. One of her favorite hair ponies was somewhere in its depths, as well as concert poster advertising for the band Dobby's Socks. She had notes, birthday cards, and probably some moldy food and money as well. When she left school, all of that money was going towards...well whatever came next in life.

Her trunk closed and locked itself with a click, and she busied herself preparing her owl, Mavis, for the long trip on the Hogwarts Express. She had received her orange and cream winged friend at the start of her 6th year as a congratulations for being made Gryffindor's Quidditch captain. She had just finished putting some fresh water in Mavis's bowl when James walked into her room. Her brother had been the heart throb, and sometimes heart breaker, of most of the female population at Hogwarts.

If she hadn't been his sister, Lily would have probably use the word 'gorgeous' to describe James. He was taller than their father and muscular, yet skinny enough that one might think he was starved at home. Which certainly was not the case, especially when he was over at Grandma Weasley's house. He had dark brown eyes and matching dark brown, shaggy hair. He managed to work the unruliness of his hair just as his father and late grandfather had managed to do in their days. Girls flocked to him, following him to class, to dinner, even sometimes to his dorm. He brought a different girl to Hogsmeade every time he had the chance to go.

Or at least that was the case until he met Claire. The summer before his seventh year at Hogwarts, James went on a vacation with Al and their cousin Fred. He had left his normal self, meaning he had a game plan to get as many girls' numbers as he could. Al and Fred had returned on time, but James had opted to stay on vacation a bit longer. Harry and Ginny had worried, but as he was seventeen, they decided to let him have his own fun before the grueling school year started. He came back hours before needing to get on the Hogwarts Express, and after he woke from his nap they were halfway to Hogwarts, and it was clear that he was not his normal self. He continued being 'abnormal James', which Lily had actually grown to like a bit because it meant that he was not constantly hitting on her friends. He didn't hit on any girls at school, not one. The reason? He had met Claire on his trip, and because Claire was not a witch, she did not go to Hogwarts. Yes sir, her prat of a brother was dating a muggle. In a lot of ways it was very cute. Claire had grown to be a part of the family.

"Come for some advice on what to get Claire bear for her birthday?" Lily asked.

James laughed. "No, no. Her birthday isn't for two weeks."

She turned around to face him. "Right, and how long did it take you to pick out the perfect Christmas gift last year?" she asked, crossing her arms.

James ran his hand through his hair nervously. "Right. I'll owl you about that. Listen, this conversation is about you," he pressed on.

"Oh is it now?" Lily teased.

James nodded. "Well I guess it is about Malfoy too."

Lily frowned. "I see. And how do I end up in a conversation with Malfoy?" she asked, looking for something to distract her a bit from the conversation.

"Because you will be spending a lot of time with him next year. Or well, actually, hopefully minimal time, but that is not the point. The point is that time will still be spent between you and the he-serpent," James said bitterly.

"I highly doubt he's serpent like, Jamie," Lily tried to laugh.

"I just wanted to make sure that you were aware that his father was a particularly slippery being," James commented.

She knew this already, of course. There was a known tension between the Potter and Malfoy family that she became aware of during her first years at Hogwarts. Scorpius had given her the whole scoop one night, early into their friendship stage. She simply nodded, not wanting to reveal anything more than James needed to know. "Just be careful around him Lily-Loon. Albus seems to think he's harmless and dad and his father made amends a long time ago, but I still don't like them. His grandfather in particular is a nasty man. Dad says he still hasn't come around."

"I know, I know. But, as you said, dad thinks that Mr. Malfoy has straightened himself out, and I agree with Al that his son seems decent enough. I'm pretty sure his grandfather is in Azkaban and his gran passed away a few years ago," she commented.

James sighed. "So you already know most of this, huh?" he asked, looking a bit happier.

Lily tried her best not to argue or slap her older brother for his prejudiced comments. "Yes, Jamie I think I can handle this coming year on my own. Thank you for looking out for me though," she sighed.

"Of course, anything for my little sister," he smirked as he made to leave her room. "Oh, if something does happen and he turns out not to be as good as everyone is making him out to be, you tell me first and I'll straighten him out. Seriously, don't hesitate."

Lily nodded. "Now, you'll be thinking about a gift for Claire, right?" he asked, ruffling his hair again. Honestly, you'd think he'd definitely suffer premature baldness at some point, always messing with his hair. Lily was pretty sure Domenique touched hers less than that.

Lily nodded. "Now off with you! I need to make sure I didn't forget anything important!" Lily scolded.

"Yes my head girlness!" James mocked, bowing as he left her room.

Lily shook her head and proceeded to do a sweep of her room. She didn't get far before there was another knock on her door frame. She sighed and turned around to see her father, and by the look on his face he also meant to have a heart to heart with her. She did everything in her power from bursting out saying 'I know everything about Scorpius. Probably even more than you do.' She instead greeted her father with a smile and a "Come on in daddy!"

Her father walked into the room, followed by her mother. "Do you need help with anything, flower?" he asked, mimicking James's hair ruffling. Honestly, Potter boys and their hair.

Lily sighed and forced a smile. "You and mum could just do the yearly check list," she offered.

Her mother laughed. "I think you have that list memorized by now don't you? You used to help when I would go over Al and Jamie's trunks before you were even in school."

Lily nodded, and then there was a slightly awkward pause, one which she knew meant a serious conversation was coming. Based on the topic of her conversation with James, she thought she could guess what was going to come from her parents. She shuffled around some papers on her desk as her parents sat down on her bed. "Lily, your mother and I are very proud of you for everything that you have accomplished," her father said.

"Thanks," she said, slightly confused.

"Growing up in the same house as your two hooligan brothers made me worry for a bit about what you would grow up like," he continued. "That and the fact that your mother's side of the family is completely insane." Ginny hit him at this comment.

Lily laughed, nervously. She was waiting to see how this was going to transition into a conversation warning her about the Malfoy family. "What your father is getting at is that we both see that you have grown into a strong, smart girl, and we are very proud of you every day," her mother said.

"Well I'm glad I haven't let you down!"

"Well your seventh year is an important year, your mother would know this better than I would, and well we were wondering if you had any thoughts about what you wanted to do after school this year," her father asked.

Well this was the last conversation she expected to be having at this moment. "Uh, well...wow," she laughed, relieved.

Harry looked at her questioningly. "What's wrong sweetheart?"

"It's okay if you don't know dear, I had no clue when I left what I wanted," her mother comforted her.

"Well it's not that...okay well it is but I... well I guess I was just convinced you were going to be talking to me about Scorpius Malfoy and his family or something."

Harry smiled. "No, no that was for James to do."

Lily laughed. "I knew that there was no way he sought me out to actually help me on his own will. Why not Al for that one?"

"Your brother James has a sense of direction sometimes, but other times we need to push him. He sometimes forgets that there are other girls in his life he needs to protect and stand up for besides Claire," her mother said.

"And I don't like talking about the Malfoys unless I can avoid it," her father added.

Lily nodded. "I thought you were on okay terms though."

"Yes, but certainly not friends, and most certainly not on good enough terms to be discussing their family in my daughter's bedroom. Which brings us back to the original topic."

Lily sighed. "It's like mum said I guess. I just don't know. I guess I find astronomy pretty exciting, but what can you do with astronomy?" she laughed.

"Not a whole lot flower, not a whole lot," her father commented. Lily did not miss the look of shock on his face while he spoke.

"We've had quite a few letters come by owl here while you were working this summer," her mother said as she pulled out a stack of envelopes from her purse.

Lily looked at the letters, confused. Was she in some sort of trouble? "What are those?" she asked.

"Apparently there are about twenty teams across Europe that want you to play for them," her father smiled.

Lily was speechless. "You mean like Quidditch?" she asked stupidly.

Her father laughed. "Yeah, kind of like Quidditch."

Lily blushed. "Why have you been keeping them from me?"

"Well there are even a few teams who wanted you to play for them this upcoming year because of retirements and injuries. But your father and I talked, and decided that it would be a good thing for you to stay in school this year. So those are out of the question," her mother said, tossing a few letters onto Lily's lap.

"And we also wanted to see if you had any interests in anything in particular after you graduated. We didn't want you to see these letters and feel that professional Quidditch was your only option. You're a bright girl, and also very talented at Quidditch," her father said.

Lily contemplated for a moment. "Are you saying that you'd be upset if I said I wanted to play professional after school?" she asked quietly. The idea was actually pretty appealing.

"Not at all! We just wanted you to have the time to consider everything and not just pick Quidditch because it was comfortable!" her father laughed.

Lily smiled. "I'll still keep my mind open, but being wanted by all of these teams is certainly ego boosting," she joked.

Her mother smiled. "I felt the same way."

Her father rustled her red locks. "What ever you decide, we want it to be because you choose it, not because it seems like it is choosing you. The feeling of having your future mapped out for you is not a good one," her father said.

Lily nodded as her mother handed her the rest of the letters. A few moments later they stood up and were headed towards the door. "Hey," Lily said suddenly.

They turned around. "Thanks. Thanks for everything," she said, and she truly meant it.

"Anything for our little girl," her father laughed.

Lily was alone again, looking over her letter offers, but only for a few short minutes before there was another knock. She shook her head and looked up to see Al's face framed in her doorway. "Ah yes the therapist can see you now," she said in a professional tone, sitting herself upright on her bed.

Al gave her a confused look. "It's that professional muggles go to so they can talk about their problems," she informed him.

"Sure," he said, still a bit confused. "Listen I heard what James was talking to you about earlier. I know I'm anti eavesdropping-"

"You are definitely a hypocrite non the less, but please continue."

"What? Since when do I ever eavesdrop?" Al demanded.

"Don't make me go over this again with you, Al. Eavesdropping runs in the family."

"I guess it's kind of hard not to when you have a sister who's mouth never stops moving," he commented.

Lily glared. "So back to you being hypocritical and eavesdropping on what Jamie was telling me..."

Her brother moved to take a seat on her desk chair. "I wanted to let you know that although Jamie has held to the common Malfoy prejudice, that he did say one thing that was true," he paused, waiting for a witty comment from his sister. When one didn't come he continued. "I do think that Scorpius is a decent guy."

Lily nodded. "Yeah he really doesn't seem that bad," she said trying to seem aloof.

There was a pause. "Lily, I know."

Lily froze. He knew about them? Their relationship? How? I guess it wasn't realistic to think that they were sliding under every single student's radar at school, but Lily liked to think that they had at least somewhat mastered the art of 'sneaking around.' But most definitely not the sort of sneaking around James used to do at school. "Er, you know what?" she asked.

"I know that you're friends with him, or at least a friendly acquaintance."

Lily exhaled. "Oh yeah. I guess you could say we are friends. How did you pick up on that one?"

"I saw you a few times together. You know just walking by the lake."

"You still recognized me out by the lake?" she gasped.

"Lily, I've lived with you your whole life. I know my sister when I see her, even if she tries to dye her hair black and wears sun glasses."

Lily blushed. "I also recognized his handwriting on the occasional notes you would get at breakfast," he added.

"How? He never signed them," she said, now completely baffled.

"I guess this is where I explain how I know he is a decent enough guy," Al said.

"Yes please."

"I tutored him in transfiguration for a few months during my seventh year, your 5th year. It started off as me serving a detention of sorts, but he seemed to really be catching on to what I was explaining to him. So, I continued to help him a night or two a week to help him pass his OWLs. It was also some pretty good review for my NEWTs."

Lily just stared at her brother for a few minutes. "I knew he was being tutored, but he never said who he was meeting with. I guess I just never really bothered to ask," she mused. "I was actually a little upset he hadn't come to me for help. Transfiguration is also a subject I'm fairly decent at."

"I knew that you guys had been talking even during the time that I was helping him out. I guess another reason I offered to keep working with him was because of that fact. Part of me wanted to make sure he didn't have any big ideas about getting with my little sister," he paused. "And the other part of me was making sure he was a decent guy for you to hang out with. Also, so just in case there was something else between you- which I do not care to discuss at this point or ever really- that I wouldn't feel the need to misguide his lessons on purpose."

"Albus Severus Potter! You would have misguided his lessons?" Lily teased.

"No, I guess not really. I'm just saying that you are really important to me, to Jamie, and to the whole family. You're our little princess, and naturally, us guys are pretty protective of you. I just wanted to let you know, as you probably already know if you are indeed friends with him, that he is truly a good guy. There was a certain down to earth sense about the kid. There was never a question of me being a Potter and him being a Malfoy. He did his work and asked honest questions. Sometimes we talked about other things in life. He has some pretty good ideas and morals, that one. Don't get all worked up about what Jamie has said about his family. In all honesty, I think Scorpius would be a great friend to have," Al finished.

Lily just nodded. She knew everything her brother had said was the truth. It was unfortunate that circumstances had changed since the school year had ended. It would have been the perfect time to confide in her brother that she and Scorpius were really more than just an idea. She could have used his reaction as a gage to judge how the rest of her family would react. Based on this conversation, Al would have taken it pretty well.

This thought made Lily happy for a moment, before she remembered that she and Scorpius were not in fact more than an idea anymore. She did not feel like coming out and telling her brother that they were actually a memory now. She shivered back to reality. "Yeah, thanks Al. Maybe you should have this talk with Jamie, yeah?" she tried to joke.

Al gave her a weak smile. "Hey, are you sure you're okay? You just gave me two opposites of the emotion spectrum in the matter of a few seconds. You smiled, frowned, and then told a joke."

Lily shrugged. "I guess it's just that this is going to be my last year and all. Just a lot to live up to. A lot to do."

"And a lot of memories to make," Al concluded.

"Yeah, more memories," Lily said, dazed. She shook her head again. "Well I'm going to finish sweeping around my room before dinner. I don't want mom to have to send too much stuff to me when I get to school."

Al nodded, not looking thoroughly convinced. "I think she kind of likes it though. She likes being needed as a mother by someone," he said as he turned to leave her room. "Hey, you know you can always come to me yeah? About anything, and I mean it. Good news, Quidditch losses, scraped knees, birds and bees-"

"Please just stop right there and leave this room right now!" Lily half shouted, half laughed at her brother.

She was relieved to see that he was completely kidding on the last part. He walked out chuckling to himself. "That's another talk Jamie could use!" she shouted after him. She heard another roar of laughter coming from the hall.

The only person Lily hadn't talked to in her immediate family this morning was herself. It wasn't something Lily did a lot of as she normally was surrounded by people she could talk to and never had anything she didn't mind sharing. This, however, was a conversation she needed to have with herself about a common topic this morning; Scorpius Malfoy and the fact that she would indeed be spending a lot of time with him, starting this time tomorrow. She would have to talk business with him tomorrow, but she was never good at talking business. Lily groaned as she closed her door and flopped back onto her bed. There was no amount of psyche up that could get her ready for tomorrow morning.

* * *

A/N: This was a lot longer than I had intended. I had hoped to get a scene or two on the Hogwarts Express in this chapter, but I think that would have made it a bit lengthy for computer reading. So that will be next time! I hope everyone is enjoying this so far! Sorry if it seems a bit slow! It will be picking up soon!


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

The plan of action for the day was to keep everything purely business. They would probably only be alone for a few minutes before the prefects arrived. During this time they would discuss what they were going to talk about at the meeting. Thankfully, Scorpius had been a prefect for the past two years before becoming Head Boy, meaning he knew all about what was supposed to happen at these meetings. He doubted Lily would have any clue what to expect or what to talk about, unless her brother Al had filled her in. Which, Scorpius reminded himself, was something that Al would do. Although, if he hadn't, it would allow him to talk to her for a longer period of time about their business and not leave any room for awkward silences that were expected to be filled with small talk. This completed the circle. Business to business, plan of the day.

It was not abnormal for the Malfoy family car to be silent during the trip to Kings Cross Station, but Scorpius found himself very aware that he was talking very loudly in his mind and quite hoped that his parents' hearing was not good enough hear his thoughts. His father was a very accomplished legimens, and Scorpius usually counteracted with occlumency, but he doubted his father would have been able to make sense of anything going on in his head. He sure as hell couldn't figure it out.

No, his father had no reason to gate-crash his son's mind. He had only done it a few times in the past when he suspected Scorpius was lying to him or wasn't telling him something important that was on his mind. Thankfully, Scorpius had learned to keep his cool, otherwise it was very probably that Draco Malfoy would know all about his son's whirlwind romance with Lily Potter. This would not be a good thing. Scorpius would have to continue to keep these memories locked tightly away in the corner of his mind, the risk was just too great. It had been years since he had last felt the pressure of his father's mind. The last time it had been because he had missed his curfew. He said had been out with some friends from school by the river near their house, but his father hadn't believed him. Draco had found out soon enough that his son had actually been to a small house party a few blocks away. He had not been afraid to let his son know that he had searched his mind, and also was not afraid to give him a serious talk and give him a grueling list of chores.

Scorpius was sure he'd know if his father had picked up on any thoughts he was having about Lily based on previous experience. His thoughts were a mess. One second he was thinking about his NEWTs, the next Lily. And while he was thinking about Lily, he was either talking himself through possible business like conversations... or he was snogging her senseless on a particularly comfy bed which he imagined was in their shared Head suite. Scorpius gave up his thoughts as a lost cause, and struck up a conversation with his mother about her garden, which quickly progressed to conversations about all of the new dishes she was going to make, inspired by her trip to the middle east she had taken over the summer on business.

Xxx

Of all the things Al could have talked to her about, he had to have chosen Scorpius. Not how she was going to handle her NEWTs, or something else useful like...oh...what the heck happens at a meeting on the Hogwarts Express? She was going into this completely blind sighted, which as she knew from Quidditch, was never a good thing. Unfortunately, Al had been called in to work that morning and was unvailable for questioning, and she was pretty sure James hadn't even known the names of his head boys and girls throughout his years at school. Really, what a useless pair of older brothers.

At least she knew that it was uncommon for anyone to show up in the meeting car a half an hour before the train was set to leave. Lily certainly had enough time to contemplate what she could talk about, and she thought she had come up with a pretty good list. Rounds, passwords, and house points. That was pretty much the extent of her knowledge. There were always two people doing rounds after eight o'clock at night. Passwords needed to be established and reported on a regular basis. Although, where and how these were reported, she had no idea. Finally, house points could be deducted in cases of rule breaking. Then again, everyone pretty much knew these things. Oh how smart she was going to sound. Not. Hopefully Scorpius would take most of the meeting into his experienced hands.

There was no use in trying to come up with any ideas out of no where, so Lily turned her attention to the families on the platform. She saw Domenique and Hugo in the crowd, talking to some of their fellow classmates. She couldn't wait to join them on the train later. Hugo had grown even more over the summer, and his robes were exposing a fair amount of the blue jeans he was wearing underneath them. He seemed to be quite distracted, he kept looking over Domenique's shoulder towards the entrance to the platform. Lily smiled to herself, realizing that it must be a girl on her cousin's mind. She would have to ask him about it later when she was able to join them.

More families kept spilling onto the platform, saying hello to old friends, hugging their first years with tears in their eyes. Lily watch a particularly touching scene in which a young boy with brown hair was presented an owl as a gift from his father. The promise of communication was every first year's best friend, no matter how many siblings or family members they had at school already.

She kept watching the families say their goodbyes until a muffled cough broke her peace. She closed her eyes for a brief moment, bracing herself, before she turned her head in the direction of the noise.

"Oh Lily, you should really see your face right now!"

Lily glared at her cousin. "Seriously, not funny Dom!" she scowled.

"I figured I'd come see how you were holding up, see if I needed to run any damage control or anything," her cousin laughed.

"Really, I think I'm going to be fine," Lily insisted.

Domenique held her nose up in the air, sniffing. "Do I smell some of that perfume I bought you for your birthday?"

Lily blushed. "You always spritzed that on before you went to meet up with him," she teased.

Lily saw a blond haired boy walking towards the compartment. "Dom-"

"You can spritz it on for the date I made for you during the first Hogsmeade weekend with David. He couldn't stop talki-"

"Excuse me," he said softly, trying to get past Domenique.

Domenique's mouth formed a sort of twisted smile before she turned to leave the compartment. She was replaced by a tall, thin boy. Scorpius was still sporting his muggle attire, dark blue jeans, tennis shoes, and a plain forest green t-shirt. His hair had grown a bit over the summer, it almost reached his ear lobes, that point where Lily would have insisted he get it cut. He would let it grow for another week or so before giving in to her requests of getting it cut. His skin was as fair as ever, and his eyes as gray as ever. Deep, curious, demanding... and Lily was getting lost in them. She looked away, embarrassed. She played with her red and gold striped tie before looking up at him again. He had seated himself across the compartment, and was staring at her in return.

Awkward was too nice of a word to describe it. She moved uncomfortably under his gaze. She wasn't sure if he knew he was staring at her and just didn't care, or if he just didn't realize that he shouldn't stare at her like that any more. She met, his eyes again, feeling intense color rise to her cheeks. She had only ever felt like this one other time, and it was only for a few minutes, right before their first kiss. She tried to bring her mind away from that memory, but suddenly found herself licking her lips and glancing a little lower than his eyes. Her face was the sun, a great red sun. Perhaps it would look like she had pulled her hair over her face. Oh, why had Domenique left. She was not ready for this.

"Lily?"

"Hm?" Had he just been talking to her? Was she so wrapped up in him that she didn't even hear?

"I asked you if you had received any instructions on what we were supposed to talk about at this meeting," he repeated, calmly.

Lily shook her head, unable to form a sentence. "I see. I guess we will have to go off of what they have been like in the past," he commented.

"Rounds, passwords, house points," Lily said, rather quickly.

He looked at her confused. She took a deep breath. "I suppose we have to talk about doing rounds, making passwords, and doing house points."

He nodded. "Yes, and probably some sort of talk of not abusing power."

Lily nodded. There was another awkward silence. "So, so how was your summer then?" he asked, uncertainly.

Lily breathed. "Oh well, you know it was pretty...it was fine," she stated. "And yours?"

"The same."

"Right."

"You look good," he sighed. "Well not burned or anything I mean."

Lily blushed. "You don't seem to have acquired too much damage from the sun either," she replied.

More silence. "So you worked at your uncle's shop then?" he asked.

"Yes, it was quite fun."

"David from our year works there as well, right?"

Lily nodded. "We worked together a few days out of the week."

"So you got to know each other pretty well then?" he asked.

Lily smiled inside. He was checking to see if she was over him yet. She wasn't over him, not by a long shot, but she was not going to play the games of dramatic heartbroken teens. She would not over exaggerate her relationship with David in order to make Scorpius jealous or angry. "I guess, he's kind of a quiet guy," she said. It was the truth.

"So you'll do most of the talking on your date then?"

Lily stared at him, confused. "The one your cousin was talking about just a few minutes ago."

"Oh, yeah. I suppose," truthfully she hadn't really considered what her cousin had actually said; she had been too focused on Scorpius entering the compartment. She now wondered if this was a planned attack from her cousin on her now ex-boyfriend. Lily was definitely going to have a chat with Domenique about this one.

The first prefect walked in, a 5th year named Chloe from Ravenclaw. Lily had to remember to give her some sort of prize for interrupting the extremely uncomfortable exchange between the two of them. It was strange, really, that it would be so difficult to talk to someone who just a few months ago, you had no trouble telling everything to. Complex and meaningful sentences had turned into jealous short remarks. Lily hated it.

XxX

Lily saw a mass of curly red hair slip into a compartment at the end of the car. Bingo. She walked on quickly and yanked open the door of said compartment. There sat her curly red haired cousin, Hugo, and her other cousin Domenique. "I need a moment with my dear cousin, alone please," she said, slightly angry.

"Okay, well Hugo, she's all yours," Domenique said quickly standing up.

"You stay, the curly one leaves," Lily fumed.

Hugo looked at their cousin sympathetically. "I'll see you later. I guess I'll go look for Joss," he said as he slipped behind Lily and out of the compartment.

"So," Lily stated after the door was sealed shut.

"So," Domenique tried.

Lily continued to stare at her cousin, arms crossed over her chest. "I take it the meeting was a little less than fine," Domenique guessed.

Lily continued her staring still. "Okay, fine," Domenique confessed. "I knew he was coming, and I knew where he was when I said what I said. But, in all fairness, David _does_ want to see you at Hogsmeade, and he was talking about you on the platform."

Lily groaned. "Dom, it was so uncalled for, not to mention so awkward," she said.

Domenique shot her a coy smile. "He mentioned it didn't he?"

Lily nodded. "And he was jealous, wasn't he?" she continued.

"Possibly, but it was more awkward than anything else."

"Brilliant. That means that he still has fee-"

"Stop. That wasn't fair to him or to me," Lily sighed. "And it won't be fair to involve David in this little break up jealousy so fast. There has to be some sort of rule about this."

"You mean the rule about how soon you can start dating after you break up with someone?" Domenique asked.

Lily nodded. "Oh that rule is pretty flexible. Mostly it's when your best friend decides that it is okay, which I have by the way."

"Oh really?" Lily tested.

"Lily, you seriously need to move on. Just get back out there," Domenique encouraged.

"First of all, that was the first time I've ever really 'been out there.' Second, I don't think I'm ready yet!" Lily said.

Domenique sighed. "I still think you should go to Hogsmeade with him. Even if it is just as friends. He said you got along so well at work over the summer, and you even admitted the same thing over the summer at the family reunion."

Lily sighed, staring out of the window. David was a nice guy, in all honesty. Not someone she could ever see herself dating, but definitely someone she could see herself spending an afternoon in Hogsmeade with. Perhaps her cousin was right. "You'll come along as well?" she asked, or well, more like requested.

Domenique nodded. "I'll find an appropriate companion."

Lily sent her a warning glare. "But not like a double date! I know I know!" her cousin defended wildly. "God forbid we have some fun, geeze."

Lily laughed. "What, don't lie and say you've never wanted to go on a double with me. See my advice in action, right before your very own eyes," Domenique teased, wiggling her eyebrows.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Sure, a live lesson."

"Oh don't give me that. You take all of my advice and you know it," her cousin accused.

Lily blushed. "Let's go see if we can find Hugo and Joss," she said, standing up.

Domenique blushed. "Let's let them find us."

"I'm not going to sit here through anymore of your torture and lectures," Lily said as she reached for the compartment door.

Her cousin stopped her, seriousness in her eyes. "They'll turn up when they are ready," she said, suggestively.

Lily was baffled. "What are you getting at?"

Domenique sighed and shook her head. "You really were totally self absorbed this summer, weren't you?"

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Hugo and Joss, well they have taken a liking to each other."

Lily stared at her. "But, Hugo is our cousin. Little Hugie, curly haired Hugo. And Joss is our best friend, so essentially our sister. So by the transitive property-"

Domenique stared at her amused. "This is something I'm just going to have to accept, isn't it?" Lily said, burying her face in her hands.

"Yup."

"Great, anything else I should know? You're not dating, like, Lorcan or Lysander are you?"

Domenique laughed. "Oh good one Lily. Lorcan is like five, and Lysander is too involved in wizard chess tournaments to think about girls."

Lily laughed. "As if anything could tare those perfect, gorgeous ocean blue eyes off of the black and white squares," Domenique said, kicking the seat across from her.

"Oh poor Dom, always wanting what she can't have."

Domenique blushed. "Nothing will ever fill my intense desire for that nerd, I swear. Of all of the boys I've been out with and kissed, none of them compare to what I imagine a date or snog with Lysander would be like," she rambled. "He sits across from me in charms, and he always chews on his quill. Sometimes I can't help but imagine his-"

"Really! This is enough!"

Domeinque rolled her eyes. "I have needs to! We always talk about Lily's problems. Girl, I think about myself, believe it or not."

"I'd prefer not."

"Tough. You don't have a guy for me to give you advice about, and I will not stand to listen to another word about Serpant-boy."

"Is this some twisted thing you are pulling to get me to go out with David?"

Domenque looked exasperated now. "No!...or well maybe now it is," she smiled. "Hugo and Joss are coming back."

Lily threw herself back onto her seat, slumping. Her cousin and her other best friend entered the compartment holding hands. She saw Joss look at her. Lily nodded as her sign of approval and Joss smiled. Lily felt a stab of jealously as she saw their fingers stay intertwined as they sat together next to Domenique. She clasped her own hands, lacing her fingers together as if to fill some sort of emptiness.

* * *

A/N: First of all, thank you for the reviews and for reading! I hope you enjoy this one as well!


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Scorpius was currently laying in bed, listening to one of his roommates- most likely Trevor Rogers- writing furiously on the bed next to him. Their professors had wasted no time in assigning them reading and essays to complete. Ever since he had noticed his homework load getting heavier near the end of his fourth year, he had adopted the 'work now, play later' attitude, which meant he tackled his pile of homework, or at least a reasonable amount of it, shortly after dinner...assuming there was no Quidditch practice of course. However, Trevor had seemed to adopt the 'play now, play harder later, and work when others are recharging their batteries' mantra. It was 2 AM, and Scorpius was exhausted.

He found himself wishing that he had chosen to live in his Head Boy quarters up on the fifth floor. He had originally had his belongings sent to his private quarters, but after waiting up in the Heads common room for a few hours after the welcome feast, it was apparent that if he chose to stay there, he would be staying there alone. Lily had not shown up, although part of him never expected her to. She had always said that one of her favorite parts of Hogwarts was being able to live closely with her house mates. He had decided that living alone was not going to be conducive to moving on with his life, something that Lily was certainly managing to do.

David. David flipping Wood. His father was the captain of the Harpies, yet the kid could hardly tell a broomstick from a mop. He was quiet, too quiet to hold a conversation with. Apparently he was the top of their year currently, typical of someone in Ravenclaw. Untypical was the fact that he worked in a joke shop, so he had to be at least a little funny or good at selling things, which were two things Scorpius couldn't see him being. Yet there you go, this tall overly skinny guy was going to be in Hogsmeade with Lily.

Before he knew what he was doing, he had cast the disillusionment charm on himself and was carefully slipping through his bed hangings. He saw the hangings closed on his peers' beds and noticed a faint light coming from Trevor's hangings. So he had been right, the fool had waited until Sunday night to start and finish their very complex potions essay. Scorpius took care in making little noise as he left the room, and again when he slipped out of the Slytherin common room and into the cold halls of the Hogwarts dungeons.

He walked to the end of the torch lit hall, stopping in front of a picture of a doe drinking from a stream. The doe would move up and down the banks, and occasionally it would flash its big green eyes at Scorpius, reminding him way too much of Lily's piercing stare. Apparently it had been placed there by a former head of Slytherin house. He had always found it to be an odd picture to have in a dungeon, but it was strangely calming in a way, and most importantly, it provided easy access to the seventh floor, right near the stairs leading to the astronomy tower.

He checked his father's old watch quickly. Astronomy started at midnight, and was usually done by one thirty or so. It was now two thirty, so Scorpius stroked the brick to the right of the painting and walked through the small slit that opened in the wall. He walked through the cold mist like substance and found himself behind a set of scarlet curtains. He listened for a moment, checking for the caretaker's cat, before he slipped out and up the staircase on his left. He took the stairs two at a time, not quite sure what he was rushing towards.

He tapped his wand on the door handle to unlock it, and proceeded into the tower. The telescopes had all been covered, and the star charts were lying in a messy pile on the desk near the door. Scorpius closed the door behind him and walked over to the balcony. He sat at the edge, hands grazing the cold iron bars separating him from the infinite night sky. The Hogwarts grounds at night were quiet and peaceful. People weren't running on the grass, even the squid wasn't breaking the water's surface with its tentacles. The Whomping Willow was swaying lightly, occasionally throwing a branch at the ground when a fox would run past. There was smoke floating from the old game keeper's hut. The trees outlining the Forbiddon Forest stood like dark regal soldiers, defending the treasures within.

It was a good place to come to clear your mind. The Hogwarts grounds had a good way of distracting all of your senses at one time. In all of the times he had been up here over the years, he had never run into another student. He and Jack Nott had found the place while running from Filch one night back in their fourth year. Occasionally the pair would come here together to talk and occasionally work on homework when the library didn't provide enough quiet and solitude.

Scorpius felt a stab of guilt as he thought of his friend. He was the one person Scorpius had told about his relationship with Lily. They had never really talked about the details of the relationship much though. He called Nott his best friend, yet there were still certain things that Scorpius found awkward to talk about with him. He told him all of the important things that happened in his life, like the fact that he was dating Lily, but it never really went much farther than stating the general topic. When his grandmother Cissa had died during his fifth year, he had simply stated it to Nott in passing while they were up on the tower. His friend did not ask questions and Scorpius did not say any more. There was just a slight awkward pause and an "I'm really sorry man," from Nott before the topic changed to something else that was easier to talk about.

He had always been slightly jealous when he saw the other notable 'best friend' pairings at Hogwarts, like Lily and Domenique. He knew for a fact that they told each other absolutely everything and were able to have conversations and offer each other meaningful advice. He had wanted the type of best friend that was closer than brother even. He wanted to have deep conversations on occasion, yet it seemed awkward with Nott. They knew each other, but they didn't. Scorpius was always the first person Nott sought out when he had a free period or had finished his homework, and they always ate meals together. Yet, there was still a level of friendship missing in a way. He knew he should tell his friend about what had really happened between Lily, or at least mention that they broke up. For the first time, he took comfort in the type of relationship he had with Nott. He knew that he could share what happened with Lily and not have to answer any questions afterward. But maybe he wanted to talk about it.

Or maybe he was completely overreacting. They were guys, emotional conversation was supposed to be off limits. He would tell Nott that he and Lily were no longer together and leave it at that. They could them move on to the planning of their traditional end of the year prank. This year's was of the utmost importance as it was going to be their last. He stood up again, making sure that his dissillusionment charm was still good. He recast it just in case. Scorpius took one last look at the peaceful scene below him, and one at the sky where a star gleamed particularly bright. He smiled to himself before heading back down to the dungeons, drafting ideas for the best prank yet.

XxX

"No, I don't want to talk about it Dom!" Lily said angrily, throwing her shoulder bag on her bed.

"Lily, you dated Sc- someone before. You have to know that a natural part of being in a relationship is kissing and showing affection of some kind."

"Yeah well he and I never did it in public."

"Yeah because if Jamie heard, the poor kid would have woken up in St. Mungos!" her cousin stated. "You've had a week and a half to adjust to this."

"It's still weird, and I'm pretty sure it's breaking some sort of rule."

"Oh you'd be one to talk. Let's ask the family which they think is worse."

Lily quited, face burning. "Just listen okay? Joss is really upset that every time you look at her your nose wrinkles. You've barely said six words to her since school started," Domenique said sitting on the end of her bed.

Lily sighed. It was still weird, seeing her cousin's freckled hands wound around her friend's curvy waist. "As long as she doesn't ditch our girl's night for him, I guess I can try to get used to it," she compromised. "Oh, and as long as she doesn't...you know...kiss and tell. That's gross and I don't want to hear it."

Domenique laughed. "Fine, but I'm still allowed to give her pointers if she wants them. You might not like to hear about your friends' romantic escapades, but I love it. You will not take that away from me."

Lily sulked. "Fine. Can we go eat now? I'm starving."

"We'd better hurry then. You have that meeting with Head Snake in a half hour don't you?"

"Yeah, we'd better go."

The Great Hall was filled with the pleasant chatter of students. Domenique and Lily walked towards the Gryffindor table where Jocelyn and Hugo were sitting across from each other near the end of the table. Lily sighed and took a seat next to her friend, striking up a conversation about the upcoming Quidditch trials she was holding. She saw Domenique smile at her as she took her seat next to Hugo.

Dinner was relatively uneventful. Lily appreciated the fact that Hugo and Jocelyn seemed to have gotten over their honeymoon phase of the relationship over the summer, so there was not an excessive amount of interaction to make her vomit. There had been one attempt by Hugo to feed Jocelyn chocolate pudding from his spoon, but that stopped once he saw the glare on his cousin's face. The pudding instead ended up on his lap which caused a worse situation involving Jocelyn trying to clean it with a napkin and Hugo's ears turning several shades of red.

Now that she found herself walking towards the library for her meeting with Scorpius, she felt herself wishing she was back at the dinner table watching her best friend eat pudding from her cousin's spoon.

XxX

Scorpius felt a twinge of annoyance as his body automatically checked his watch for the fifth time in the past two minutes. He knew exactly what time it was; fifteen minutes before his meeting with Lily in the library, where he was currently sitting. He had occupied three different chairs during the ten minutes he had been there. He sighed. He needed to find something productive to do, or at least something that made him look like he was being productive instead of looking like a paranoid schizophrenic, which is what he imagined he must look like now.

Scorpius stood up and walked towards the sea of towering bookshelves on the other side of the library. He had nothing in mind to look for, his research report on animagi wasn't due until after the winter holidays, and Professor Longbottom had not yet explained their project on pink rooted snugploffs. He made few idol turns, reading the titles of the occasional book that caught his eye. He walked through the charms section, the herbology section, and the section on self help books before he found himself stopping in the divination section. Against his will, his feet dragged him closer to the shelves to read the spines of the dusty books.

There were books on tarot cards, crystal ball gazing, palm reading and tea leaf reading. His eyes grazed over these quickly, settling on a dark blue book with gold writing. The title at first made him smirk, but he felt himself reach for it anyway. _Talking Orbs and What to do with them. _He flicked through the book quickly, reading some of the chapter titles including, 'Who Else can Hear it?', 'Is it Really Magic? Because it Looks Like a Muggle Lawn Decoration', and 'Who is Behind the Exceptionally Creepy Voice and Why Do They Care About Me?' Against his better judgment, Scorpius took the book up to the librarian and checked it out. Checking out that book had nothing to do with Lily...or well not really. He did at least kind of want to know how the thing worked and why...solely for the purpose of knowing, of course.

He turned, stuffing the book deep into his shoulder bag. The big clock on the wall read two minutes past seven, meaning Lily should be showing up at any minute. Scorpius sighed and resumed his position at the first chair he had sat at that night. His mind wandered, and his ears were filled with the annoying buzz of chatter around. Honestly, what happened to library quiet standards?

And why were the lights flashing slightly? Scorpius shook his head slightly and refocused to see a thin red headed girl standing across the table from him, waving a sheet of parchment in front of his face. "Oh, hey Lily," he said, getting his senses back.

She sat down across from him, bending to the side to get something out of her bag. Scorpius took the time to admire her hair shining in the light before she resurfaced holding a stack of parchment. "So did everyone follow through with giving you their schedule then?" he asked.

She flicked through the pages. "For the most part, I think we are still missing two."

"Well I guess we will just fill them into the blank slots on the time table then," he replied, taking some of the papers from her.

"I guess it's good that we don't have to worry about weekend rounds."

Scorpius laughed dryly. It was a rule that had been instated a few years back. The Friday and Saturday night shifts were taken by the Head Boy and Girl to ensure that absolutely no shenanigans was happening at night, especially in the dormitories and deserted hallways and classrooms. "I guess that is one way to look at it."

Lily laughed lightly. Scorpius was glad that they had at least somewhat gotten over the awkwardness between them. That first conversation on the Hogwarts Express was almost unbearable to him. It had been so hard to ask her the simplest questions about her life. Part of it was him not knowing what questions were okay to ask your ex girlfriend, and the other part was the fact that he was upset he even had to ask those casual small talk type questions. Their second meeting was slightly less awkward, although there were a few more than awkward pauses.

He watched Lily as she stared blankly at the papers in front of her. "So how do you want to go about figuring this out?" he asked.

Lily sighed. "I was trying to figure that out my whole walk here. I guess one way to start would be make a list of everyone that can do rounds Monday, everyone that can do Tuesday, and so on. Then we can figure out some sort of rotation."

"Do we want to keep the same pair patrolling each night, or should we change that up as well?" Scorpius pondered.

"I'd say that there are definitely some people we don't want patrolling together."

Scorpius laughed. "Yeah like that fifth year prefect from Ravanclaw and that seventh year Hufflepuff that she can't keep her hands off of."

"Yes, this is definitely true. A set buddy system then? We could try it out for a week or two and if anyone has problems we could have a meeting to change it up," Lily suggested.

Scorpius nodded. They got to work, silently making lists of who could patrol what days. There was some more casual banter exchanged, and laughs that made Scorpius smile. It seemed like no time passed at all when Lily was rolling up their final draft of the patrolling schedule. "I'll make sure the prefects all get a copy tomorrow."

"Gemino charm should do the trick," Scorpius recommended.

She nodded as she slung her bag over her shoulder. "I'll see you later then," she said as she turned to quickly leave the library.

Scorpius lingered for a few minutes longer before heading out to his dormitory. He felt the dungeon walls sucking the warmth from his skin. By the time he reached his bed, he felt empty. He now knew the real reason he took that book out of the library. He needed to find some way to disprove that stupid prophecy.

* * *

A/N: Sorry that took a while! I've been busy at work and catching up with some friends. Thank you for the lovely reviews! Just one thing to clarify/respond to leiar: sorry for the confusion with my using 'lover' in that chapter. Scorpius and Lily did not sleep together in their relationship. I was using it meaning 'felt intimately for.' I should probably find a better word. Thanks for bringing that up, and I'm glad you are enjoying this so far! Starlight630: sorry for keeping you waiting! You're review helped push me to finish up this chapter! Thanks!


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

"Dom, are you sure you _really _want to be a chaser?" Lily asked as they both pulled their brooms from their trunks.

After a week of tasting the anticipation in the common room, the Gryffindor Quidditch trials had arrived. Lily had to obtain the perfect team. They only had one player that graduated from last year's team, but it was regulation for the entire team to re-try out each season. Lily was too nervous to do something as big as replace Domenique as their keeper during her last year at Hogwarts. Her cousin was perfect, and the fact that she could even consider giving up her position was a mystery to Lily.

Her cousin sent her the signature Weasley-woman glare as an answer to her question before standing up. Lily sighed and headed towards the door with her Firebolt. They headed out of the common room together in silence. "So I was thinking about making everyone try out for all positions this year," Lily started. "Wait! Before you interrupt me, it's not about trying to keep you as keeper. What if someone tries out for chaser, but they have a natural talent for being a beater? They would never make the team because they didn't try out for the right post! They would never know about their secret talent!" She finished.

"So you're saying that if I suck at chaser you wouldn't let me on the team?" Domenique asked.

"No! I know that you are an all round good Quidditch player but-"

"I thought this wasn't about me?"

"It's not but-"

"LILY!" Domenique shouted, throwing her hands up in the air. She was the only one in the world who could get Lily to stop talking. And she used this power regularly...almost to the point of abuse.

"What?" Lily responded timidly.

"Even if this scheme of yours isn't about me-"

"Which it's not! If you'd just let me finish-"

"Trials would take all night. There are way too many people trying out, and if you put them through all of the positions, you'll miss astronomy tonight."

Lily stopped. Too many people trying out? "But last year we hardly had any people!"

"That's because you changed the date of the trials like five times. Everyone was confused!"

"Well it's not my fault that the weather was awful, or that the Whomping Willow decided to hurl branches into the air at random for two straight weeks. I jumped on the day when I saw it. People who can't accept fast changes shouldn't be on the team anyway," Lily rambled.

"Anyway, there are going to be a lot more people here. Everyone wants to be apart of the last year of the golden age," Domenique smiled.

Lily frowned. "Golden age?"

"You're the last of the Potter legacy, or at least until James and Claire start popping them out. Everyone wants to be apart of your last year."

Lily smiled. "Well we'd better make it a good one, yeah?"

Domenique smiled back. "Just remember it's my last year too, okay?"

Lily sighed. It would be really selfish of her to not at least consider Domenique for chaser. Hugo better be a damn good keeper.

Xxx

Quidditch trials on the same day as an Astronomy lesson. Okay, well technically they were the day before as class started at midnight. Either way you phrased it, it ultimately sounded like this: Not a good idea. Lily had a rare love and appreciation for astronomy. It was not usually a subject students stuck with until the end, but Lily and a very small handful of other seventh years still found beauty in star charts.

The class had started off basic and boring during their first few years of school. It was mostly labeling and following the known planets and their moons as they made their orbits around the sun. Later, they progressed into the more mathematical based realm trying to figure out how far away certain stars were. Last year they had been lucky enough to witness a supernova. Unluckily, Professor Reed had decided a good project would be to calculate how long ago the explosion had actually occurred and which stars it had created. Lily found it interesting that when humans think about time, they are concerned with the time that they know. That leaves room for a past, present, and a future, none of which exist at the same time. Yet, with astronomy and the stars, you could observe in the present an even that actually happened billions of years ago. It was thrilling.

Tonight however, Lily was frustrated with the topic. They were still in the early weeks of the year, which meant plotting out an initial map of the sky. The same thing was done during the last few weeks of school in order to compare star and planet locations. On her star chart there was an unexplainable object. She knew her start placements, constellations, planets, everything, but this one was not something she knew. It was getting late in the lesson, most students had called it quits for the night. She strongly considered doing the same. It was probably just her tired eyes miscounting the number of stars in the Pegasus constellation. Surely that is what this bright mass was apart of.

She sighed loudly, making a violent scribble with her quill on the side of her text book. This caught her professors attention and prompted her to come to the aid of her frustrated student. "What seems to be the problem?" Professor Reed asked.

Lily had a mini battle in her head. Should she chalk the bright object up to tiredness and not say anything, or say something and risk sounding stupid? Stay up all night worrying about the unplaced star, or get an answer and sleep well. Sleep. Double Transfiguration in seven hours. Definitely sleep. "I actually am having a bit of trouble placing one star," she admitted.

"Well go on and show me then. I'm sure it's nothing we can't solve," Reed smiled sweetly.

Lily spent a few moments getting her problem into focus before stepping away from the telescope for Reed to examine. There was a long pause while she studied the sky. "Hm... Well it seems that you are having trouble because that is not a star Lily," she said, pulling away from the telescope.

Lily's eyes widened. "It's not some sort of muggle satellite is it? Oh I'd feel so stupid if I just wasted a half and hour obsessing about one of those stupid things."

Reed laughed lightly. "No no, not one of those metal contraptions. Now I wonder why none of your classmates brought up this mystery."

"What is it? I know it's not a planet, I've found those already," Lily said, pointing them out on her chart.

"Oh, I know it's not a planet dear," Reed said. "That there is Andromeda."

"Who?"

"It's usually the faint smear you see above Pegasus. Andromeda is the closest galaxy to ours. However, it's not supposed to be this close."

"What do you mean?" Lily asked.

Reed shook her head. "It's really a bunch of muggle scientific theories, nothing too important. Seeing it so clearly is probably due to the fact that it is an extremely clear night. That supernova at the end of last year was very close to it making it very possible that many new stars were born in Andromeda. The only thing to really worry about is the fact that the rest of your classmates said nothing. Nothing! I'm really anxious to see what they all labeled it as, or if they chose to ignore it completely," she said, walking away from Lily now. "Pack up and go to bed dear. It's late and you look exhausted."

Lily smiled and proceeded to roll up her charts and place them in her bag along with her book and quill. "Well goodnight then."

"Good night Lily."

She heard a few final squeaks and clicks as Professor Reed secured the telescopes for the night as she headed down the spiraling stone staircase. She tried to remember if they had ever gone over neighboring galaxies in class. Even if they hadn't, she decided, there was bound to be a chapter on them in one of her books for the class. The problem was that they were somewhere in the depths of her trunk and it was one in the morning. She figured that her roommates would appreciate her absolute quietness when she returned to the room.

Unfortunately, Lily was curious and wanted information tonight, right now. There was always her father's trusty old cloak which she carried in her bag at all times. She could slip under the silvery fabric and into the library to find what she needed. But then there was that alarm system that went off when books left the library without permission, and she really didn't feel like reading by wand light, stifling under the cloak in an uncomfortable library chair. Hogwarts really needed some sort of resource for students who had a thirst for knowledge after hours.

She rounded the corner lost in though about how such a thing would work and be accessible with the assurance that no trouble making would happen, when suddenly she was on the stone ground, and was listening to her wand as it rolled away from her. "Lily, is that you?" a voice asked.

"Yes," she replied, shakily as a cold hand pulled her to her feet. The hand was familiar and lingered on hers for several seconds before she looked up to see a pair of gray eyes illuminated in the wand light.

"Scorpius," she breathed, as he dropped her hand.

"I think your wand rolled a bit that way," he said, turning away from her to shine his light in the direction of her missing wand.

Her face was flaming as she too stared in the direction of the light. She walked closer, finding her wand after a few moments. "Thanks," she muttered as she walked back over to him, grabbing her bag he had picked up off the ground.

"What are you doing up here at this hour?" he asked.

"Astronomy. I stayed a bit late," she said, pushing her hair behind her ears. "What are you doing up here?"

He shrugged. "Roommates forgot about that Transfiguration essay that is due tomorrow and they are all sitting in bed, scratching away, and I wouldn't feel comfortable casting a silencing charm around my curtains."

"Why? You wouldn't have to hear all of the hustle and bustle of the morning. I would give anything to go one morning without hearing Alison's morning yawning. Honestly, you'd think I was living with a lion," Lily joked.

"Well you do live in the lion's den so..." he joked back.

Lily laughed at his joke. It always made his day when he could crack some sort of animal/Hogwarts house joke. "So were you just out for a walk until they finish, or were you just going to kip out in front of one of these suits of armor?"

He stared at her blankly for a moment. Clearly, she was missing something. "We have rooms in the Head's suite, Lily," he said.

She looked around for a moment, trying to recall where exactly McGonigall had mentioned their suite was. "Right here behind the lion and the snake portrait," he clarified.

Lily looked to her right and saw an enormous lion basking on a rock. There was no snake in sight. "Ah. Do you stay here often then? I hear snakes have difficulties writing essays; no fingers right?"

"You should really work on those jokes Lily, honestly. Lions have no thumbs and therefore could also not complete essays," he rolled his eyes.

"They could probably do a heck of a better job than a snake!"

Scorpius just shook his head. " But back to your question, tonight was going to be my first night staying in the suite. I've been kind of meaning to check it out. I mean, we should probably use it. We have our own common room and-," he said.

"Library!" she blurted out.

He looked at her questioningly. "We have a whole library in the suite!" Lily said, laughing. "Do you think they'll have books on astronomy?"

"You and doing things at the oddest hours! Honestly Lily, its nearly two in the morning!" he laughed.

"Have I ever kept a normal schedule?"

He shrugged, and there was a brief moment of silence. She could hear the creaking of the castle around them. There was something in the air that smelled familiar. She took in a few discrete whiffs before she realized it was his cologne. She found herself blushing again. "Did you want to go check it out?" he asked.

"What?"

"Our suite and the library," he said, walking toward the portrait.

"Oh, sure why not," she decided.

"Do you remember what the password was?"

Lily paused for a moment, raking her brain. "I don't know if they ever told us."

"Do you supposed we should just ask it to let us in?" Scorpius asked, pointing his want light at the lion basking on his tan rock.

"I guess it is worth a try," Lily said taking a few steps forward.

"Hey, hey," Scorpius addressed the lion. "Could you wake up for a sec to let us in?"

"I wouldn't do that if I wasssss you."

Lily gasped as she looked around her. "What was that?"

"Down there, look," Scorpius pointed.

There, at the bottom of the portrait was a long brown snake, slowly raising its head level with hers. Its tongue flicked out of its mouth a few times before it spoke again. "You sssshould never tickle a ssssleeping dragon."

"But that's a lion," Lily blurted out. Ugh, obviously.

The snake appeared to give her a once over. "You reside in the housssse of Godric Gryffindor. What is the differensssse really between a freshly woken dragon and an annoyed lion king?"

Lily considered herself in the morning and smiled at the snake. "The longer the mane, the more vicious in the morning hours."

The snake nodded. "Now I will let you in. Sssstop by again sssstrangerssss. There have been many imposssstersss here in your place, but none with the correct answerssss."

With those words, the portrait opened, releasing a gust of cool air. Scorpius looked at Lily and indicated that she should enter first. She walked through the darkened entrance and into a dazzlingly warm room. Their common area had a fireplace surrounded by emerald green couches. Lily walked further into the room and noticed a wizard chess set assembled next to a great picture window over looking the Quidditch stadium. Portraits of unfamiliar sleeping witches and wizards were hung on the walls, along with some of dragons and the night sky. A set of glass double doors to the right lead to the library, which Lily could tell was a pretty decent size from where she was standing. Along the same wall as the fireplace were three doors. The farthest left was deep red, the middle was brown, and the one on the right was deep green.

"Wow," Scorpius mused as he walked up behind Lily.

She nodded. "I'm guessing the green door is mine, the red yours," he said after observing the room.

"Oh we have to check them out!" she smiled, pulling at his arm slightly.

They proceeded forward to their respective rooms. Lily opened her door to reveal an enormous four poster bed, covered in a gold bedspread with red pillows. A wardrobe was standing off to the side, open and waiting to be filled with her clothes. She noticed there was also a broomstick stand and a Quidditch diagram board just like the one in the team locker room. She felt a stab of guilt. Whoever had planned this room had done a careful job to consider her interests, and this is the first time stepping inside since she arrived at school a few weeks ago.

She felt smothered suddenly and stepped backwards out of the room. Maybe she should spend a few nights up here. It was obvious now that Scorpius intended to use his room at least whenever there was a huge essay due. But, then again there wasn't really a reason for her to use the room. Jocelyn and Domenique were courteous enough to use the common room whenever they were cramming for an exam or doing last minute edits to an essay. Maybe she would use it if she ever needed to do some late library research.

Lily walked toward the glass double doors of their library alone (Scorpius was still occupied in his room). She pulled them open and took in the rows and rows of bookshelves before her. There were also two study tables and a few chalk boards built into the walls. The study tables had the standard library chairs, but there were a few cozy looking chairs in the corner. She could definitely see herself getting some good studying done in this room.

She walked towards the shelves, looking for some sort of labels. In the main library, each shelf was labeled, along with signs hanging from the ceiling to show which books were placed where. This library didn't seem to have any of that. The only sign present was hanging in the center of all of the shelves. It read "Ask and you will find."

Was it really as simple as the sign made it out to be? Could she really just say a topic and magically find the book she was looking for? She blushed slightly, she was a witch after all. She drew in a breath. "Astronomy," she said, barely above a whisper.

The shelves were suddenly a blur before her, but only for a second before a smaller shelf containing about twenty books appeared in front of her. She smiled as she recognized the spines of her previous text books. Magic really was simple sometimes, she mused as she walked over to the shelf to choose her first book.

Xxx

_...listen to it a few times and go to the source. Don't go with the intention of finding out what the prophecy means or why it was made because seers generally do not remember the prophecies they make. It is mostly by pure chance that these little tidbits get recorded. Do not seek out the seer unless your only intent is to verify that the prophecy is not a fraud. Do seek out the listener, the recorder. Get all information from this person about where and when they heard this seer and who they told about it. _

Scorpius sighed as he closed the book on prophecies. So much for coming up here to get some sleep. It was almost four in the morning, and he hadn't closed his eyes once. It had been his sole intention when first heading to the suite to go straight to sleep. However, seeing Lily again and being with her in their quarters instilled a need to figure out what the prophecy means. However, after two hours of reading, his only conclusions were that 1. prophecies were very subjective and 2. to get any sort of answer as to who made it and when he would need to pay another visit to Tragsman.

He sighed and added it to his mental 'to do' list as he placed the book on his bedside table. He rolled out of his dark green sheets and walked towards his door with the intent of washing his face and returning back to bed. He was distracted, however, by the light coming through the open library doors. Was Lily really still awake? Honestly, that girl and her need to do things the second she thinks of them. He shook his head and smiled as he walked towards the library.

He walked inside and saw a curtain of red hair fanned out over one of the study tables. He walked closer and saw that Lily had fallen asleep in whatever book she was reading, a small dot of drool threatening to smear the writing on the page. Scorpius laughed lightly out loud before going to tap her on the shoulder. "Hey, Lily," she stirred slightly. "Hey, you should go up to your room to sleep. You don't want a neck ache tomorrow."

"Hmmmhmmm," she mumbled.

"Come on, let's go," he said, lightly pulling at her arm.

"So late. Can't go to Gryffindor."

"Well then let's get you to your room here."

She moved her arms slightly, burrying her face in the crease of her elbow. After a few minutes passed in which she made no attempt to get up, Scorpius sighed, realizing he was going to have to put his Quidditch muscles to use. _I guess she meant it when she said she was a heavy sleeper, _he remembered. He bent down to her level and maneuvered her arms around his neck, scooping his other arm in the crook of her knees. He lifted her easily and carried her back to her room. He walked slowly as not to disturb her...and also to prolong this moment between them, even if she probably wouldn't remember it.

After several long minutes he placed her under her gold duvet, pulling it up to her chin. He felt the strong urge to kiss her forehead, but felt that it would not be appropriate. He settled for stroking her hair lightly before turning to leave her for the night. Scorpius had just reached the door when he heard her sigh, "Mmm, g'night Scor."

He smiled, turning back around. "Good night Lily flower."

* * *

A/N: Sorry for another delay everyone! I've just been so busy! I guess it's a mix of work and the fact that I know the main points and events that need to happen in this fic, but filling in the text surrounding these ideas is just giving me trouble lately, as you can probably tell after reading this. I have a future chapter written that I can't wait to put up, but unfortunately that will have to wait a bit. Aside from the fact that this is not my best work, I still hope you all enjoy and continue to read! Thanks again for the reviews!


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

There was a rustle of wings above and Scorpius looked up from his plate of eggs, scanning the mass of owls delivering the morning's mail. "Seriously, what are you waiting for?" Nott asked from his right.

Scorpius spent a few more seconds scanning the Great Hall before turning to his friend. "Just a letter," he said, turning back to the owls. "from the Ministry."

His friend shook his head while reaching for the glass of pumpkin juice in front of his plate. "Post Hogwarts business?" he asked.

Scorpius shook his head. As usual, Nott accepted this as an answer and asked no more questions. Scorpius's eyes lit up as he saw a regal looking owl heading towards his plate. It was definitely a Ministry owl, complete with the the bronze 'M' medallion signifying it was an owl used for non-urgent messages. The bird dropped a thin letter onto his lap and Scorpius offered it some breakfast sausage. He stroked the bird's wings lightly as it ate.

After a few minutes the bird left and Scorpius turned his attention to the letter it had brought. He lifted the Ministry seal and read:

_Dear Mr. Malfoy,_

_My office has received all six of your letters inquiring about _ Tragsman. The information you have requested is not usually given out to the general public. However, since our records show that you have spent some time shadowing Mr. Tragsman, I have decided to make an exception. _

_Mr. Tragsman left the Ministry a few months ago for personal reasons that cannot be revealed due to the employee privacy policy of current and past Ministry workers. I can also not tell you his current address for the same reason. I'm sure though, that you must have his contact information from the meeting you had with him this past spring. _

_If the information you are seeking from Mr. Tragsman can be answered by anyone else in this office, I invite you to provide us with your questions and background and we will do our best to answer those questions for you. _

_Thank you, _

_Lavender Brown – Belby_

Scorpius folded the letter hastily out of frustration. It would be his luck that Tragsman would feel the urge to pursue other things in life than a Ministry desk job. The glass orb was either secured in a Ministry vault where it belonged, or Tragsman had found a way to smuggle it out of his office when he left. He was seriously hoping for the latter. Tracking down a disappearing man was probably going to be easier than gaining access to Ministry vaults. He could just imagine the conversation, _"Yes I was shadowing Mr. Tragsman last spring. Oh yes you remember him talking about it? Shame he left, I would have like to come again. Listen, while he took a brief step out of his office during that visit I found and listened to a prophecy he had out on one of his bookshelves. I was wondering if I could have access to your top secret vaults so I could hear it again? Really? Oh you are too great!"_ As if.

He stuffed the letter into his bag and followed his classmates out of the Great Hall and out to the greenhouses. He was distracted during the lesson by thoughts of how to track down a missing man...or rather a man whose address he did not know. How smart were owls? Could they just track someone down? The Hogwarts owls always seemed to when his family was on the last week of their summer vacation. If he tried this tactic he couldn't make the letter too descriptive. What would he say? "I have a question for you?" or should he go for something more professional and heart felt, breaking out the true meaning of the letters after a few had been exchanged between them? He sighed as he continued to clip the leaves off of the thrashing red plant in front of him. Anything and everything was worth a try.

Xxx

Lily was pacing back and forth between the door and her bed in her dormitory. Whatever Domenique had taken it for, there better be a good reason. "Lily Luna Potter, unless you want to give whoever may be roaming around the sixth floor hallway premier seats to see straight up your skirt you had better stop wearing down the poor floor!"

Jocelyn flinched behind a pillow as Lily's charms book came flying at her face. "It's going to be okay! You two make Hogsmeade runs all of the time!" she said, muffled by her scarlet pillow.

"What?" Lily raged. "That's where she is?"

A pair of golden eyes appeared over the scarlet pillow. When they saw that there were no objects in the hands of the murderous redhead, the pillow was slowly lowered. "I'm not using that as a justification for what she did, but it is true. The two of you have been going since our second year to bring back snacks for the post Quidditch victory celebrations."

Lily plopped down on her bed, head in her hands. "But she only brought half of the two part operation," she commented.

Jocelyn looked at her questioningly and Lily responded by holding up a very battered piece of parchment which she had pulled from her pocked. "It's the key to being unnoticed while slipping in and out of the one eyed witch."

"One eyed witch? Is that the best you could come up with for me Lily?" a voice asked from the doorway.

Lily let out a breath. "Merlin Dom!" she sighed as the door shut.

There was a faint swishing noise as her cousin revealed herself and her spoils from the night's adventure. "You about gave me heart attack when I saw it was gone!" Lily fumed.

"And she was about to give some innocent people on the 6th floor a heart attack if they looked-"

"Lily! We need this floor to survive! If you hadn't noticed, this castle is pretty old and this floor is the only thing keeping us from waking up in the 6th floor hallway," Domenique laughed. "No more pacing!"

"Did you really just have to take it though? That cloak is the one thing of my father's that I never had to share with my brothers. I got dad's broom when they were both done learning. I read dad's book only when they had finished with it I-"

"You got kissed last every night and were the last one to inherit his famous underpants. Yeah, we know Lils!" Domenique sighed tossing the flowing silver material at her cousin.

"I'm serious Dom! This cloak is-"

"Worth more than my life and your life combined. Lily, I know!"

"Then why did you take it?" Lily asked, honestly.

"You were patrolling and I wanted to get back with our chocolate and butterbeers before you returned so we'd have more time to discuss girl things," she said as she laid a fluffy blanket in the middle of the floor.

"Could you ask next time? Or at least take the map?" Lily gave in. "So you don't one day wake up in the 6th floor hall?" she added as a joke.

Domenique sighed sarcastically. "I guess I could do that. But only because I take this beautiful face off every time I sleep so the house elves can work on it. We can't have everyone know what really lies behind this mask."

"Yeah, a bloody thief and a rotten soul," Lily said under her breath.

"Alright! It's girl time now!" Jocelyn interrupted, pulling them onto the ground beside her.

They all laughed as they arranged themselves in a circle surrounding the butterbeer and sweets. After each girl had claimed a butterbeer and sweet, Domenique convened the meeting. "As usual, state a goal you have for your romantic life this school year. And make it good, this is the last year," she stated. "Oh, all persons of interest must be referred to by code names and never by their real name."

Jocelyn rolled her eyes. "I don't understand the code name thing. What if two of us end up liking the same guy?" she asked.

"Then may the best witch win," Domenique said, winking at Lily.

Lily smiled at her cousin, thankful that she never made them reveal the true identity of their romantic interests. Eventually, everyone told Domenique anyway for advice. This way, everyone won. "Alright, I'll go first," Domenique continued.

She cleared her throat loudly. "The Mysterious Salamander still continues to hold a place in my heart, although prospects with Clever Canary are looking good."

"So is anything ever going to happen with you and Mysterious Salamander?" Jocelyn asked.

"You didn't let me finish," Domenique accused.

Jocelyn made an elaborate gesture with her hand. "Oh, please continue!"

Domenique grinned. "Before the winter holidays he will know that I exist. And he will ask me out on a date."

Lily whistled. "That is pretty demanding Dom. What if he doesn't want to ask you on a date?" she teased.

"You next," she responded, not answering the challenge.

Lily sighed. "I still have eyes for Grey Storm," she admitted. "Nothing is going to happen though," she added quickly.

"Lily! But it's been the same guy since fifth year! You aren't exactly the shiest girl at school. What's the deal?" asked Jocelyn.

Lily squirmed. "It's not meant to be."

"Soon she will have an interest for...oh let's call him Tranquil Trickster after their date in Hogsmeade tomorrow afternoon," Domenique smiled.

Lily groaned. "That's tomorrow?"

Domenique nodded. "And you bet your bottom you're going."

She sighed. "Can we at least give him a better name if it ends up working?" she asked.

Domenique smiled at her softly. "Yes."

Lily wasn't worried about coming up with another name at the moment. She really didn't see any chance of her and David hitting it off as a couple; she had worked with him all summer. The thought of his face getting close enough to kiss her...

"Well I obviously have a thing for Hu-"

"Ahem!" Lily interrupted, snapping out of her daydream."Code name please! Maybe then I can forget it's my cousin we are talking about."

"Lily, he's my cousin too and I can still stand to listen to Jocelyn talk about him!" Domenique accused.

"Nickname, please!" Lily insisted.

The girls laughed. Jocelyn contemplated for a moment before continuing. "Regal Fox."

"Oooh, good one!" Domenique cooed. "Goals for the year with sir Regale Fox?"

Jocelyn blushed. "I've never really had much experience with the physical aspect of relationships, but I think I'd-"

"Permission to be excused!" Lily shouted.

Domenique looked at her. "Under what account?" she asked folding her arms.

"The sudden urge to vomit," she stated. "Sorry Joss," she added with a soft smile.

Jocelyn smiled weakly back at her. "I grant permission. It's fine with me, I understand," she said.

Domenique considered her request for a few moments. "Permission granted by all parties. Please exit the room," she smiled.

Lily nodded. "Have fun girls. Don't eat all of the chocolate!"

They all laughed as she made her way out of their dormitory. Lily collapsed into one of the plump couches by the fireplace. It was now midnight, and the common room was almost deserted. On her rounds she had discovered that many of her classmates were at one of Professor Slughorn's gatherings in the dungeons. What time that was over, she hadn't the slightest clue. It was quiet in the room, she could get some work done. Who was she kidding, it was a Friday night, the night meant for adventure. With that thought, she slipped under her father's cloak and started out of the portrait hole.

xXx

Scorpius quietly inched open the astronomy tower door, just to make sure that the class was over. The blackboard was neatly erased, Professor Reed's desk was vacant, and all but one of the telescopes were put away. He took this as the all clear to enter the room. He walked over to the gazing deck edge and sat down. The Hogwarts grounds were splashed with red, gold, and orange leaves swirling in the night wind.

He sat for a few moments longer admiring the ripples moving in the black lake before he removed the disillusionment charm. Moments later her heard what sounded like a gasp. He wrenched his neck around to look back at the door. Could the Head Boy get away with being up on the gazing deck after hours? Probably not. There was nothing behind him, although he could have sworn he saw the telescope closest to him move slightly to the right. Perhaps it was the wind? When it was clear he was alone in the room, he let out the breath he had been holding and turned back to the grounds.

He chuckled to himself lightly. "You're too tired to be up here," he muttered, rubbing his eyes.

"I had always pegged you as a night owl," a voice came from next to him.

At this, Scorpius jumped to his feet, whipping his wand out from the pocket of his robes. The voice laughed sweetly. "Oh calm down Scor!"

Scorpius felt his eye brows bunch together. There was a quick movement to his left, and seconds later his shoulder was tapped. He spun around in time to see Lily appear out of thin air. "Merlin Lily!"

She just looked at him and laughed. "You're better at disillusionment charms than I am," he commented, relieved.

She smiled at him and shook a silvery fabric in front of his face. "That's because I didn't use a silly charm. I have a more sophisticated way of sneaking about the castle," she said triumphantly.

Scorpius couldn't believe his eyes. She had an invisibility cloak. "How did you ever get one?"

Lily sat down on the gazing deck, wrapping up the precious cloak and slipping it into her bag next to the telescope. "It belonged to my father."

Scorpius nodded as he sat down next to her. "So you use the cloak to come and study astronomy at night?" he joked.

She shrugged. "More or less."

"What's going on up there that is so interesting?" he asked.

Her face became shadowed by concern. "I'm not really sure," she admitted after a few minutes. "I'm trying to figure it all out."

Scorpius nodded. "What are you doing up here?" she asked.

He shrugged. "I needed some of the night air before bed. Davis was up and I was headed up to our common room anyway. I figured I would just swing by here if class was done with."

"So you are staying there again?" she asked.

Scorpius nodded. "I awoke thoroughly refreshed last time," he said.

"Me too!" Lily commented. "Er, thanks for getting me to bed that night. I'm sure my neck and face appreciate it," she blushed.

"It was no problem," he said. "You should really start eating more you know. It was all too easy to just pick you up."

Lily laughed. "Maybe you should lay off the Quidditch enhancers."

"Are you staying there as well?" he asked after recovering from her last comment.

She shrugged. "I might. I'm not sure how late Joss and Dom were planning on staying up talking tonight," she said. "It was Dom's turn to give Joss advice on kissing and being a couple with Hugo. That was not something I wanted to witness," she added.

Scorpius laughed. "I can see why," he said. There was a brief pause as he rapidly thought of some way to get her to agree to stay in the suite with him. "You really should stay up there though. We have some plotting to do."

She raised her eyebrows. "Oh really?"

"The ball, remember?"

Lily groaned. "Oh I'm so bad at planning those types of things. I remember what a mess I made out of dad's 40th surprise party. It was not pretty," she said.

"All the more reason to start planning now!" he said, eagerly.

"Do we even know when it is? Or when theme we are supposed to go along with?"

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "Do you know the definition of plan? It means we haven't decided on anything yet."

"Har har har," Lily said sarcastically. "Scorpius Malfoy, the amazing walking dictionary."

"Come on, it's Friday. I'm sure we can get some sort of outline done by the morning."

"Pull an all nighter planning a ball? Aren't seventh years supposed to study or something?"

"Well fine, if you want this ball to blow as much as your father's party did..." Scorpius teased. "Potters probably just don't have the genes to plan good parties."

She glared at him. "We Potters know how to have a good time. We'll throw the most epic ball Hogwarts has ever seen."

Scorpius smirked at her before getting to his feet. "Deal. Let's see what you've got," he said, offering her his hand.

Lily grinned, taking his hand and pulling herself to her feet. "You don't even know what you've gotten yourself into."

xXx

"Merlin I've missed this," Lily managed to gasp after a severe laughing fit. She was sure her face was red and her heart must be working overtime trying to transport what little oxygen she was able to take in.

"You've missed planning Halloween masquerade balls at four in the morning with a Slytherin?" Scorpius joked.

"Mostly just the last bit of it," she murmured after finally gaining control of her lungs.

Scorpius smiled to himself. "I've been trying to find that Tragsman guy," he blurted out.

Lily looked at him suddenly. What she said had been true, she had missed joking and talking with Scorpius. Although being this close to him at times was painful, the pros outweighed the cons in her mind. Now she was starting to reconsider. If he was looking for Tragsman it must have something to do with the prophecy that their relationship had ended over. What information was he looking for? Was he trying to suggest that they should get back together, trying to prove that this whole thing was a misunderstanding? If he could do that, if he could just find Tragsman and get him to say that everything was a mistake, that the prophecy didn't mean what they thought it meant, they could be doing more than just talking right now.

Her eyes floated to his lips, and she felt her tongue graze her own. The heat rose to her cheeks again as she realized what she was considering. "Scorpius..."

He reached his hand out to cover hers. "Listen Lily," he said, tracing small circles on her hand with his thumb. "He could have answers for us, answers that mean we could be together again."

Lily remained silent, conflicted by what her mind was telling her to do and the electric feeling she was getting from contact of their skin. "I've missed you so much," he whispered, looking into her eyes.

"I think I should get to bed," Lily finally said, pulling her hand out from under his. "I'm meeting David in Hogsmeade tomorrow."

As soon as those words had left her lips, she wished she could take them back. She saw a twinge of hurt flash across Scorpius's face. She didn't even know what made her say it. There was a long silence before Scorpius nodded in agreement. She quickly gathered the papers from the table and placed them in her bag before heading over to her room. He heard her whisper goodnight before closing her door for the night. Scorpius sighed and placed his head in his hands. There was nothing he wouldn't have given to have had that scene go the complete opposite direction it had just went.

* * *

A/N: Thank you everyone for the awesome reviews! I love coming back from work to see email notifications, they really help keep me motivated to finish up chapters. I hope you enjoy this chapter! I have just realized I have written 10 chapters all developing characters and background...now it's time to get into some more suspense and plot action...get ready!


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Lily stormed rather loudly into her dorm room back in Gryffindor tower. After taring herself away from a certain gray eyed someone in a dream involving situations her father certainly would not approve of, she proceeded to run into said gray eyed boy who was clad solely in a towel as she was exiting her room in the Head's suite. He must have cast some sort of spell on her last night because before now she was doing an okay job of keeping him in the 'friend' category. Now she felt like a typical teenage girl with raging hormones and risqué thoughts, and storming around to get Domenique's attention was usually a good fix for this type of mood.

"Merlin Lily! It's barely eight o'clock!" her cousin moaned from behind her bed curtains.

"Hogsmeade today," she said. "Want to look nice."

She heard the curtains to her cousin's bed immediately open. When Lily spoke in broken sentence fragments, things were bad. Domenique sent her a shifty smirk after taking in her morning appearance. "What happened to you last night?" she asked, standing up.

"Nothing," Lily defended.

"That's not what your hair says," he cousin smiled.

Lily ran to her mirror. Her hair was sticking up at all angles, just like James's did in the morning. Good thing it was indeed eight in the morning and the walk from the Head's suite to the Gryffindor tower was not far. "Nothing happened," she insisted.

"Wanna talk about it?" Domenique pushed on.

"Just pick me out something to wear for the day. We'll talk while we play dress up."

Domenique rumpled her nose. "At least go shower first jungle girl," she joked.

Lily rolled her eyes as she headed into the girl's bathroom.

Xxx

After a long, hot shower Lily stepped into the outfit her cousin had laid out for her; a pair of white capris, a yellow flowing top, and a pair of black flats. Her cousin had in the mean time showered, gotten dressed, and was motioning for Lily to sit in the chair in front of her 'beauty box' as Lily called it. Domenique lightly curled her hair and added some light make up to her face as Lily rambled about Scorpius and her inability to get over him.

"Well have you gotten it all out of your system now?" she asked.

Lily stared at her. "What do you mean have I gotten it out of my system? It will never be out of my system! I can't just go and forget about him can I? Of course I'm not done!"

"Well you had better be done quickly, David will be heartbroken if you keep talking about it over tea at Madam Puddifoots," Domenique smiled.

Lily groaned. "Did it really have to be that place Dom?"

"All blossoming relationships start at Madam Puddifoots over jasmine tea," she responded, moving on to do her own makeup.

"What if I don't want to start a blossoming relationship with David?" Lily asked.

Domenique spun around, glaring. "You're going. This is the last I want to hear of it." She sounded absolutely terrifying and Lily stopped her arguments straight away.

A few minutes passed in silence as Lily examined her appearance in the mirror. Domenique really knew what she was doing with those makeup utensils. "Who are you going with anyway?" she asked.

"Hmm?" she replied as she added eyeliner to her eye lids.

"You said a while back that this was to be a double date. Who are you going with?" Lily asked again.

Domenique screwed the lid back onto her eyeliner and tossed it into her bag. "Mark Fletchly," she responded.

Lily thought for a moment, trying to place a face to the name her cousin had given her. "Not the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain! Dom, we play them next Saturday! You can't go on a date with him!" Lily exclaimed.

"And why not? It's not like he can recruit me to his team or anything," she scoffed.

"What if he tries to poison you or something today? What am I supposed to do then?"

Domenique glared again. "Thanks for your concern, but I think everything is going to be fine."

"What if he slips Vertiserum into your tea and you spill all of our new Quidditch tactics?" Lily exclaimed.

"Number one, I don't usually play by your tactics, therefore I never listen to them. Number two, it won't happen so chill out!"

Lily glared back at her cousin. "Come on, it's time to get going. If you have a terrible time, I promise I'll never put you through this again," Domenique promised.

Lily nodded and the girls headed down to the entrance hall.

Xxx

Lily and Domenique met Mark and David outside of the tea shop and they headed inside after an exchange of 'hello's. There was a few minutes of silence as they each looked over the pink and red lacy tea listings and ordered. Lily made sure not to order the jasmine tea, just in case it really did have something to do with blossoming relationships, and was also sure to avoid any teas with cute names such as 'Forget-me-not.' Domenique, Lily noticed, avoided the jasmine tea as well, which made Lily smile. Why her cousin would ask Mark on a date while she liked another guy was a mystery, probably one that would never be solved.

Mark struck up a conversation about Quidditch, which immediately made Lily suspicious and caused her eyebrows to scrunch together. She sent a warning glance at her cousin, before starting a different conversation with David, who wasn't well versed in Quidditch talk. "What have you been up to so far this year, David?" she asked.

"Well you know, mostly just studying and stuff. Your Uncle George has been sending me some joke school supply samples to test out and send him back comments and improvements," he stated.

Lily faked a pout. "He never sends me anything."

"He probably figures the Head Girl has more important things to do," he replied.

Lily shrugged and sipped her tea. "So how's that stuff going?" he asked after a moment.

"What stuff?" Lily asked, absentmindedly.

"You know, all of your Head Girl duties?"

"Oh, well they're great. Nothing too overly exciting," Lily cringed at the emptiness and lack of enthusiasm in her words. There was something that always changes in a relationship when one feels that the other likes him or her as more than just a friend. That change is the introduction of awkwardness. She did not want to leave any room for David to question whether she liked him as more than a friend. Yet, she hated being so cold to him.

Lily played with the napkin on her lap and stared into her tea, looking up to see David fidgiting in a similar fashion. "So er, got any idea what you want to do after school?" she asked lamely.

David shrugged. "The only thing I've really known has been your uncle's joke shop. I'm not sure if I want to make a career out of it, but I am pretty good with charms and things like that."

Lily nodded. "So what about you? Any grand plans?" he asked.

Lily shrugged as well. "I've had a few Quidditch offers, but I don't know if I want to spend the rest of my life playing."

David nodded and the conversation died again. The second hand on the clock Lily had began staring at was perfectly still it seemed. How long did tea dates usually last? Hopefully not too much longer, she hoped. She listened as her cousin laughed her infamous 'that wasn't funny but I guess I'll laugh to make you feel better' laugh at a joke that Mark had just told. Something about a house elf and a unicorn maybe? Lily hadn't really been paying attention. It didn't seem like Domenique was having such a stellar time either, yet she hadn't suggested that they leave yet. Couldn't she tell that Lily was also having a dismal time?

Finally, Domenique turned her attention to her cousin. "Did you guys want to order some cakes or anything?" she asked quickly. Lily turned her immediate frown into a half smile and nodded. After putting in the order for the cakes, the conversation between Lily and David picked up a few more topics, but dropped them just as quickly as the others had been.

After the cakes were finished, the foursome happily stepped outside of the stifling tea shop and into the sunny streets of Hogsmeade. "I think Mark and I are going to go to the book store. Would you guys care to join us?" Domenique asked.

Lily opened her mouth to answer before David cut in. "I actually wanted to hang out with Lily for a bit, alone," he said.

Domenique smiled lightly at Lily who groaned on the inside. Why on Earth would he want to continue their date? She figured he would have wanted to stop while he was still somewhat ahead. She waved goodbye to her cousin and Mark, and was left alone with David. "Walk with me?" he asked.

She nodded, what other choice did she have. There was an awkward silence between them, making Lily want to turn around and run. "Fun date, huh?" Lily commented.

David sent her an awkward smile. "Yeah about that," he started. Lily held her breath, preparing for the worst. "I really enjoyed working with you and getting to know you over the summer, and I'm also really glad that we became friends."

Lily nodded, still bracing herself. Could she bring herself to say no if he asked her out? She didn't want to hurt his feelings, but she knew if she said yes she would never really be happy. "I was talking to Domenique about you on the platform at the start of the year since I knew she was your cousin. Well, next thing I know she was suggesting this double date," he continued. "I just wanted to know what you thought about it, you didn't really seem like your usual self."

Lily froze. What kind of conversation was this? Was he trying to tell her he liked her? Trying to ask her out? She wished she could run. "I er- well, I really like having you as a friend," she said.

David nodded. "But, I er-I don't think my feelings extend anymore than that," she finished, glancing at his face.

She was surprised to see a look of relief on his face. "You know, I was really hoping you'd say that," he said. "Not that I wouldn't mind having you as a girlfriend. Or well, if I liked you that way that is," he said defensively.

Lily laughed. "Don't worry about offending me! I just said I didn't want to be more than friends!"

He laughed nervously. "Well now that that conversation is over, want to go visit your uncle?" he suggested.

Lily nodded, still smiling. "Let's go. He's probably got his hands full with all of us Hogwarts kids here. The least we can do is cause some more trouble."

"There's my Lily!" David smiled as they walked to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes together.

Xxx

"Actually Nott," he said, crumbling the letter he was holding in his fist. "I don't need to go to the owl post anymore."

Nott looked in the direction his friend had just been staring and saw a red headed girl and a brown haired boy, laughing together. The red head he knew was Lily Potter, his friend's recent ex-girlfriend, he wasn't sure who the boy was. He didn't know what had happened between Scorpius and Lily, but Nott was guessing by Scorpius's attitude lately, he hadn't been happy about the break up.

There was something about the laughter and exchange, although he couldn't hear it, taking place between Lily and the boy, and that something wasn't a relationship or any kind of flirting. He knew flirtatious laughter when he saw it; he had been on the receiving end many times in his days at Hogwarts.

He turned back to Scorpius who was now grumbling, kicking rocks as they walked. "You know, a lot of mistakes are made by people who don't know the whole story," Nott commented.

Scorpius froze. "I mean, to me it doesn't look like there is anything between them but friendship," Nott continued.

"Between who?" Scorpius asked, nervously. He had been hoping his friend wouldn't have picked up on where his anger had come from.

"Lily and that boy, I'm not dumb Scor. I know I stay quiet and don't ask questions, but not this time. You have been taring yourself apart at school this year. I've caught you staring over at her during meals countless times. I don't think that those two are any more than friends. I can tell," he confirmed.

Scorpius sighed. "I don't know," he said.

"Well you will continue not knowing unless you ask her," Nott said.

"She doesn't want to be with me anyway, so what does it matter?" Scorpius responded, crumbling the letter even tighter in his fist.

Nott shrugged and pulled an extendable ear out of his pocket. Scorpius shook his head. "Suite yourself mate," he said, tucking the fleshy fake ear back into the pocket of his jeans.

They walked in silence for a few more minutes. Scorpius was contemplating something his friend had said to him, the part about not knowing the whole story. He glanced back at Lily who was walking away with David and he noticed that they weren't holding hands. He sighed and used his wand to straighten out the letter. It appeared as though nothing had started between them yet, and if he acted fast enough, maybe nothing ever would start. "Changed my mind."

Nott smiled. "I hear the white snowy owls are the fastest the post office offers this time of year," he commented.

Scorpius smiled. "Then I hope they have one available."

"What are you mailing out anyway?" Nott asked curiously.

"Same stuff as usual. Post Hogwarts Ministry stuff," Scorpius lied.

Nott sighed. "I understand if you don't want to talk about it, but do you really have to keep lying to me?" he asked.

Scorpius felt a twinge of guilt and ran a hand through his hair. "It has to do with Lily and why we broke up. I don't really want to talk about it right now though," he said.

Nott nodded and the boys walked in silence to the post office. Nott waited courteously outside for his friend, kicking pebbles on the street. He could see Scorpius choosing a great white snowy owl to deliver his letter. A few moments later, Scorpius exited the office, releasing the bird into the air. "Better do it's job. That was quite expensive," he sighed.

Nott nodded. "Quidditch shop time?" he grinned.

Scorpius nodded, and the two headed off to their favorite store in Hogsmeade.

xXx

"...so it turned out to be an okay day," Lily finished, telling Jocelyn the tale of how her extremely awkward date with David had turned into a fun 'friend hang out day.'

Jocelyn smiled. "I knew Domenique was going to far setting up that date. I mean, sure David was talking about you a lot, but that's only because he's social awkward in the way that as soon as someone starts a topic he knows something about he just keeps talking and talking. I could tell it wasn't anything special when he was talking about you, no offense of course," her friend said.

Lily shook her head. "None taken. I don't get it though. Dom is so good at giving relationship advice, yet this date thing was a disaster. Even she didn't like the guy she was with," Lily said.

Jocelyn shrugged. "I guess that's Dom sometimes. Maybe she just wanted to cheer you up? It's obvious something is bothering you," she said, hopeful for more information.

Lily sighed. Keeping Jocelyn in the dark about her situation with Scorpius was extremely hard and made her feel very guilty, yet she still found it a necessary precaution...and she really didn't want to talk about it at the moment. She sent her friend an apologetic smile. "What are you dating my cousin Philip or something?" Jocelyn joked.

Lily burst out laughing. Philip was Jocelyn's only cousin, and he happened to be 35, living with his parents in London. "Oh, you got me there Joss," she joked.

Jocelyn joined in with her laughter for a few minutes before they both let out sighs. "Did you say something about having to turn in those plans for the ball?" Jocelyn asked after a few minutes.

Lily nodded. "I supposed I better go confirm with Scorpius before turning them in for good."

"Can you at least give me a tiny hint about the ball? Even like when it will be or what the theme is?" Jocelyn pleaded.

Lily smiled. "It will be before the holidays and everyone is sure to wear a new face," she said, smirking.

Jocelyn contemplated her words for a few moments. "Lily that was not an adequate answer."

"Ah but you did not specify that you wanted an adequate answer," she replied, gathering her bag to head to the Head suite. "I'll see you later."

"See ya," Jocelyn responded.

She and Scorpius had decided on a masquerade ball to eliminate the students' stress over finding a date to the event. It was to be held in a month's time, just around Halloween, but was not considered to be associated with the holiday. Lily and Scorpius had agreed that this was to be a formal event, not one with costumes. The masks would be costume enough.

Lily stepped into the portrait hole and looked around for Scorpius. She saw light streaming through the glass library doors and headed towards them. She saw his head laying flat on the table top in front of him. Lily smiled at the sight before walking over to gently shake him awake.

"What timesit?" he mumbled.

"What was that sleeping beauty?" she joked.

"What time is it?" he asked again, rubbing his eyes.

Lily brought her empty wrist up to face level and responded, "A freckle past a hair."

Scorpius rolled his eyes and turned around to look at the clock on the wall. "Seven, right on time Lily," he said, stretching.

"What were you up to today that's got you so tired?" she asked.

"Nothing, walked around Hogsmeade. Nothing big, no date or anything," he said.

Lily blushed. "I guess not everyone can go on dates at Hogsmeade," she joked nervously.

She saw Scorpius's eyes drop as she said this. "Well, er not that I was on a date. Well I guess technically I was, but it was so awkward, and well, I guess maybe I wouldn't call it a date. I mean we weren't even interested in each other, it was just Dom trying to be nice and everything. It was one of the most awkward things of my life. Honestly. Well I guess there was that time that-"

"Lily really! Take a breath once and a while," Scorpius joked. "You really haven't changed at all since I first met you."

Lily laughed again. "Yeah, I guess not. Although, I have moved on to more sophisticated games than hide-and-seek."

"You play tag now?"

"Ha ha ha. Quidditch ring a bell?" she laughed.

"You talked about Quidditch one of the first times we met as well," he remembered.

"You haven't changed either. You still remember everything," she joked.

He smiled lightly. "I like my memories," he said, staring at her face.

Lily blushed and looked away from his eyes, busying herself with the papers outlining the plans for the ball. "We should probably go over these one more time before we turn them in to McGonigall," she suggested.

Scorpius nodded.

* * *

A/N: Thank you for all of the lovely reviews! I really really can't tell you how much I appreciate them! I was going to make this chapter longer, but thought this was a good ending point and I hope you all enjoyed it! I have a solid outline for chapter 12 and it should be posted within the next few days I hope!


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

On her way to Transfiguration that morning Lily stopped at all of the message boards to post copies of the flyer advertising for the Masquerade Ball she and Scorpius had planned. The notices had turned out rather well. Silver words shimmered against a jet black, glossy background flashing the name of the event followed by the date and time, and finally additional information about dress code and the no date policy. She had given Scorpius a similar size stack to post on the way to all of his classes that day to ensure that all of the message boards were covered. There would be no reason that anyone in the castle wouldn't know about the ball by the end of the day.

She paused as she hung a flyer on the board directly outside of the Transfiguration room. Another flyer had caught her eye. It was plain, yet the subject matter was very interesting; a wandless magic demonstration followed by a lesson to be held the following evening in the Great Hall after dinner. The flyer stated that it was open to all ages and all levels of magical talent. Lily found this rather odd, usually seminars such as this excluded the younger students. "Magic is never too young or too old to be liberated from the wand," the flyer read.

The flyer had done its job, or at least with Lily it had, she now fully intended to attend the event out of curiosity. They had done some nonverbal magic practice in her Defense Against the Dark Arts classes, but never had she heard of wandless magic being performed. She tore her eyes away from the sign just in time to walk into her class before the tardy bell rang.

Xxx

Scorpius kept fingering the piece of parchment hidden in his pocket during his potions lecture. The snowy post office owl had delivered him a letter this morning at breakfast but he had not had the time to read it before class started. Part of him was hoping for a long, thought out response that he would not have been able to read adequately before class anyway. At this point, any response would be a good response. He had sent the letter a week and a half ago and had began to worry whether it had reached its destination or not.

He recognized the penmanship that scrawled his name onto the outside of the parchment and had known immediately it was from Tragsman. At least his letter had reached the right person. He would keep the snowy owls from the post office in mind for all future letters of unknown destination.

His potion hissed angrily at him as he sloshed the last ingredient into his cauldron. Professor Slughorn shot him a nervous glance that quickly morphed into a 'be more careful, will you?' glare. Scorpius glanced at his potion book and followed the next direction, "stir potion 33 times clockwise and allow to simmer for a half an hour." Great.

Xxx

Three hours later and Scorpius was finally done with his classes for the day. He ate a hasty lunch and rushed up to the Head's suite, wanting to read his letter in peace. Lily had not returned to their common room yet, not that he expected her too. She was probably still enjoying lunch with her friends. Just in case to ensure he got to read the letter in its entirety in peace, he proceeded into his room and closed and locked the door behind him. He threw his shoulder bag onto the floor in front of his dresser and sat down on his four poster bed.

He took the letter out of his pocket and quickly opened it. It was indeed Tragsman's writing, although it was much shorter than he had hoped.

_Dear Mr. Malfoy,_

_It was great to hear from you again! I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed your day at the Ministry and that you plan to pursue it further as a career. As for the specific object you inquired after in your previous letter, I am afraid I no longer have it in my possession. I can tell you however, that he who does not listen to the message long, often makes a decision entirely wrong. I'm afraid I can be of no more help to you at this time. _

_Good luck, and I mean this honestly and truly._

_-Sam Tragsman_

Scorpius groaned and buried his head in his hands. This had definitely not been the answer he had been looking for. He should have asked for a transcription of the prophecy. Tragsman had obviously listened to it enough to know that if Scorpius had not heard the whole thing he could make the wrong choice. Even this thought couldn't even tell him if breaking up with Lily had been the right choice. At least he did know one thing; he did not hear the whole prophecy. Why else would Tragsman have responded the way that he did? If Scorpius had questions, it was obviously because he did not hear the clear answer at the end of the prophecy.

He was so close, yet so far from Lily. Part of him, well most of him, wanted to say "screw the stupid prophecy. Who really cares anyway?" but then he remembered that Lily cared; she cared a great deal. He had to either prove to her that there was nothing to care about or make her care more about him than about the stupid jumble of words. He could lie to her, tell her that Tragsman revealed the end of the prophecy and it said that nothing bad would happen if they stayed together. But, he couldn't lie to her.

He thought back on the moment they had shared almost two weeks ago in the library. He had reached for her hand and she had let him hold it for a few short moments. He missed even the most simple forms of contact with Lily. He had to make this work.

Xxx

"So be sure by the end of our gazing session today you have accounted for Andromeda. After reviewing your charts from two weeks ago, it seems that Lily was the only one to label it. These preliminary charts need to be accurate. You must bring yourselves to ask questions as Lily did to account for all masses in the sky," Professor Reed scorned the class. "Andromeda should be near the Pegasus constellation," she finished setting her class to work.

Lily sighed. She had been observing the constellation almost every night since the class she had discovered it, and based on her observations she doubted that it would still be in the same place. Each time she had looked for the galaxy it had been in a slightly different location, and each time seemingly brighter than before. She was honestly beginning to believe that it wasn't the galaxy after all but rather one of those muggle satellites or the space station that had recently been completed.

She adjusted her telescope to the last coordinates she had recorded for the galaxy and again, it had moved. She adjusted her settings to bring Andromeda into the center of her vision and recorded its new location on her chart; a considerable distance away from where it had started off. She looked around as her classmates were sneaking glances at each other's charts, trying to see if the other had any new additions to their charts. "What is is supposed to look like? I think I see something strange up near Pegasus, but I'm pretty sure that is just dust on my lens." one of her classmates whispered behind her.

"Professor?" one boy asked.

"Yes Davies?"

"I can't seem to find it," he responded.

There was a sigh of relief from most of her classmates and a chorus of "Yeah, same here," mutters from about the room.

Professor Reed turned her attention to Lily. "It was near Pegasus, right?" she confirmed.

"Originally, yes, but it seems to have moved," she stated.

Professor Reed gave her a questioning glance. Lily had to be careful how she phrased her next few sentences; Professor Reed could not know that she had been sneaking up to the tower to stargaze late at night. "I started looking where we saw it last, and when I could not find it I continued to move throught the sky until I found it around Pisces."

Professor Reed's eyebrows drew together as she walked quickly over to Lily's telescope. "You're quite sure?" she asked before looking into the lens.

Lily nodded, blushing as her classmates had all turned to stare at her. "Quite," she whispered.

Professor Reed was silent for a few moments before she pulled away from the microscope. "Well," she said quietly. "I think this calls for a change of lesson plans."

"All that charting for nothing," one Hufflepuff boy grumbled.

"Right now, how many of there are you?" Professor Reed asked, ignoring the comment.

"Seven," a Ravenclaw girl responded.

"Ah one left out, but no worries. Partner up all of you, except for you dear," she said looking at Lily.

The class spent a few moments finding a partner, curious as to what was to happen next. "Alright, you two," she said pointing at the grumbling Hufflepuff and his partner. "Williams, you are muggle born are you not?" she asked.

The boy nodded. "Right, you and Grims (the grumbling Hufflepuff) are to look for all previous and present information the muggle scienca...scientats..."

"Scientists?" Williams suggested.

"Yes, yes scientists. Find all information they have collected on Andromeda. I will get you a pass to go home this weekend to gather any books or supplies you may need," Professor Reed instructed.

The pair nodded and she rounded to the next pair. "Scamander and Bell, I need you two to find everything wizard astronomers have written and reported about Andromeda," she instructed further. "Again, I can get you passes to any other library or Ministry area you need access to."

Without waiting for a response, she rounded to the final pair. "You two will...you will find all myths about this galaxy, both muggle and magical. Myths are here defined as stories, rumors, and prophecies or anything else along those lines. I can get you access to anything you may need at the Ministry as well.

Nott and Zambini nodded. "I will review your work and come up with new tasks as I see fit, and all of us will be responsible for predictions and keeping up with the monthly astronomy reports," she finished.

"What about me, Professor?" Lily asked quickly.

"Oh yes, of course Lily. You will be in charge of coming up here each night – try for the same time each night dear – and chart Andromeda's movements and any other observations you can note about her. Also, if you could come up with some way to organize all of the information coming in and help me read through it, I would greatly appreciate it. Stay after class and I will get you the key to my personal telescope and extra equipment," she said. "Remember your assignments and don't hesitate to ask for anything you may need. I will probably need a week's time to get all Ministry visits approved, so keep that in mind. Class dismissed."

Lily looked at the clock on the wall. They had barely been there for a half an hour. She approached Professor Reed's desk after packing away her supplies. "Ah yes Lily. Here is a copy of the key to my telescope and the equipment cabinet. Make sure you note what time you are coming upstairs, I don't care if you interrupt my other classes. Note any other observations you can make about the galaxy; don't leave anything out."

"Why are we doing this?" Lily asked, before she could stop herself.

Professor Reed sighed. "I'm not quite sure yet. In time, we will know. If we learn nothing, at least it will take us away from the rather dry lesson plans I had drawn up for the rest of the term," she chuckled. "Off to bed with you."

Lily nodded and said her good nights as she tucked the two brass keys deep into her pockets. She set off down the staircase. There was clearly something that had gotten Professor Reed nervous, obviously these sudden movements of galaxies are not common. She was lost in thought and nearly screamed as she almost ran into a dark figure standing outside of the Head's portrait hole.

"Well if you can't let me in to see if he's there, can you at least tell me if he has come or gone in the past few hours?" the figure asked, sounding frustrated.

"No sssir. That would be a violation of hisss privasssyy," the cunning snake hissed.

"Can I help you with something, Nott?" Lily asked, recognizing the figure as she drew closer.

Nott looked up at her, slightly startled. "I was just looking for Scorpius. I figured since he had been sleeping up here so much lately I would check before returning back to the dungeons," he explained.

"Well I was planning on grabbing something from the library, I could let you in or check for you," Lily offered to Scorpius's best friend.

Nott stood silent, as if contemplating something. "Actually, it's fine. It's really not that important I tell him tonight. Goodnight Lily," he said before walking down the hall.

"What an odd guy," she mummbled before going into the suite to grab her transfiguration book. She saw a light coming from under Scorpius's door. Should she tell him that Nott had been looking for him? She was about to knock on his door when she decided against it. She didn't especially want to see him right then. Nott could tell him whatever it was over breakfast in the morning, she decided, grabbing her book and quickly exiting the suite.

Xxx

Scorpius tugged a flyer advertising for the wandless magic seminar off the bulletin board and slipped it into his bag so he would not forget to attend that evening. He had to admit, he was pretty excited that McGonigall had approved of this event. She had been debating, he remembered, wondering if it was too advanced for students and if it would end up causing more harm than good. Some students couldn't even perform magic properly with a wand, she had complained. In the end, Scorpius and Professor Longbottom and Harry Potter had been able to convince her that it was a good idea to at least expose the students to a new branch of magic.

Scorpius had been able to get a pretty good handle on nonverbal magic in his sixth year. Nonverbal magic made sense to him, wandless magic on the other hand, did not. It is feasible that a wizard can be attached enough to his wand for it to read his thoughts. How a wizard could produce magic without a guide, he hadn't the slightest clue. Although, he reminded himself, all young wizards showed some magical ability without wands.

He looked at the clock on the wall and sped off in the opposite direction; there was not time for him to eat breakfast this morning before Herbology. He frowned as he heard his stomach yelling for the food in the Great Hall. Lunch was only a few short hours away, he told himself.

After an agonizing Herbology demonstration on how to properly plant poisonous plants so as not to kill non poisonous plants you may want to grow, he entered the Transfiguration class room. He scanned the middle of the classroom, searching for Nott. His friend, however, was not sitting in their usual seats. He had instead chosen seats in the back left corner. Scorpius walked over and shot his friend a questioning glance as he sat down. "You want to tell me what this is all about?" he asked, quietly and slightly annoyed; his stomach was starting to turn his mood foul.

"Muffliato," Nott mumbled, waving his wand slightly. "I have something to tell you."

"Well come on then, let's hear it," Scorpius said.

"We got assigned this project in Astronomy last night. I won't go into details, but I got assigned to find all myths about the galaxy Andromda," Nott started. "Prophecies are considered myths for this project."

Scorpius stared at him. Was he supposed to be happy about this or something? Did Nott think he was some sort of prophecy expert because there had been one made about him? "And, what does this have to do with me?" he asked.

"Reed said she can get me access to Ministry files and objects that I may need. She said she can arrange for me to go to the Ministry if needed," he said excitedly.

Scorpius thought for a moment, and then put two and two together. "You can access the bloody prophecy hall if you needed too, couldn't you?" he asked.

"Correction," Nott said.

Scorpius stared at him. "_You_ can access the bloody prophecy hall," he smiled.

"But-"

"I brief you on the project, you pull out my hair and slap it in some Polyjuice potion, and then you can go to the Ministry, sound smart, and access whatever you need to. Then you can get your girl back and stop acting like Death," he finished.

"Polyjuice potion?" Scorpius reminded him. "Last time I checked the Hogwarts kitchen didn't keep that in its fridge."

"We can brew it. In your room in the Head's suite. Leave getting the ingredients up to me. We brewed it fourth year for that prank, remember? Now that we actually have a decent place to brew it, it will be no problem. I still have the recipe and everything written in the back of my third year potions book," Nott continued.

Scorpius smiled. "Alright, let's do it!"

"Only problem is that it will take a month. I'll find some way to convince my partner that we don't need to explore prophecies for a bit. We'll start on something else, slowly. Considering my partner is that Zambini bloke, slow shouldn't be a problem," he joked.

Scorpius laughed. "What would I ever do without you."

xXx

"Last chance to come learn wandless magic Dom," Lily offered, slipping on her shoes.

Domenique shook her head without looking up from her charms essay. "Gotta get this done tonight," she responded.

Lily shrugged. "You in Joss?" she asked.

Jocelyn also shook her head. "Hugo and I have plans for the night," she said, cheeks reddening.

Lily held up her hand. "Say no more, I'm out of here," she said.

She entered the Great Hall to find about fifty students, mostly sixth and seventh years gathered near the front of the room. As she walked closer she saw a thin wizard standing near Dumbledore's podium, chatting with some of his audience. She made her way towards the front of the crowd and coincidentally found herself standing next to a blonde haired boy. She held her breath and tried to inch away from Scorpius, but he had noticed her standing beside him. "Ah I thought you'd be here," he commented.

Lily nodded and was spared further conversation when the thin, old wizard started to talk. "I do not expect most of you to be able to master or even do much with wandless magic at our meeting today. But don't worry, I have arranged for this seminar to continue as long as any of you are still interested. With practice and diligence, I know you can all do it," the wizard stated.

"My name is Richard, Richard Blavely, and you can all call me Blavely. I have been studying this art form for about fifty years and have found much use for it, as you can imagine. Especially during the past few wizarding wars, the first of which inspired me to learn and keep up with it," he started. He took a few paces back and forth before continuing. "It is easier to begin if you have some sort of background in nonverbal magic. As I understand, sixth years and above have had at least some exposure to that art. Don't worry youngsters, your skill in it does not matter for now. As long as you keep trying and remember the principles I teach, you will succeed in this task."

Lily smiled. She had been pretty decent at nonverbal magic last year, although she had stopped practicing over the summer. She noticed that Scorpius's eyes had lit up at the mention of nonverbal magic. He had been quite good. In fact, he had given her pointers last year. They used to duel together late at night on the grounds. Maybe this had been the reason she had stopped practicing.

Blavely continued for a while, talking about how to use the body, use each cell as a channel for the magic flowing through their bodies. Lily could feel an energy pulsing through her own body, but reminded herself that it was probably just the blood flowing through her veins. He explained how they must not let magic overtake their bodies, they must not let it explode or escape their control, which is what wands helped to do. They must learn to control where they want to produce magic from. In most cases, the hands were preferred, although the feet, nose, and eyes sometimes had their advantages.

"Alright, if you would all turn around," he said, waving his hands lightly. "You will see several circles etched into the ground with several small objects in them. Start by using your basic charms. Wingardium Leviosa, Accio, maybe a transfiguration spell even. In the early stages, it will be easiest to speak the incantation, although ideally it would be nonverbal. Remember, start small, try to focus your energy through your hands. If you feel it radiating from any other part of your body, please stop immediately. Simple is best to start. Please, chose a circle and begin. I will be around to offer some pointers. Leave your wands outside of the circles. Many beginners have such a strong connection to their wand that even if they are not holding it, it can still preform simple spell work," he said.

There was a rush as the students eagerly went off to find an empty circle. Lily walked over to the first one she found and stepped over the line. Everything suddenly got very quiet and the room grew blurry around her. "Perfect for concentration," Blavely's voice said, clearly.

Lily looked down at her feet and saw a small pillow, a goblet, and a roll of parchment. She closed her eyes and focused on gathering her magical energy. She stood still for quite sometime, feeling the energy in her body, flowing and flowing and flowing. After she had gotten a sense on where it was going and how it moved inside of her, she brought herself to try to concentrate and direct the flow towards her hands. At first, nothing seemed to happen. She concentrated harder, pushing until she heard a slight popping noise at her feet. She was startled and looked down. Her goblet was no more than a piece of crumpled metal. "Ah, try for some control. Do not try to push everything out all at once. Just will the energy to flow to a specific area, never push," Blavely's voice said.

Lily watched as her goblet slowly returned to its original form with a similar popping noise. She closed her eyes to start again. She found her power, and tried to work with it, urging it to lightly flow towards her finger tips. She opened her eyes, not sure if she was doing it correctly. At least nothing had exploded this time. She looked around her, forgetting the blur the rest of the had had become. She moved her hands over the quill saying, "Wingardium Leviosa."

Nothing happened. She tried again. Nothing. Again, nothing. On the fourth time, however, the feather managed to hover a few feet in the air, but only for a few seconds before returning back to the ground. "Aha! A few of you are managing to do some simple magic!" Blavely cheered.

Lily smiled, slightly embarrassed. Part of her felt like she was back in her first year being congratulated for such a simple task. But then again, this wasn't supposed to be a simple task. She went on through the remainder of the time, trying to levitate the feather. She succeeded to get it to the level of her eyes once before Blavely announced that it was time to stop for the evening.

Slowly, the sounds of the night produced by the ceiling met her ears along with the gasps of her classmates. Her vision returned slowly as well. She saw many burn marks on the floor from over concentrated energy, but everyone still seemed to be alive and well. "Please keep on practicing. I will provide you all a copy of my book, which tells you the most important thing for beginners to know," he paused, smiling at them all. "How to conjure the circle to ensure no accidents will happen. I will be back. I'm not sure exactly when, but I will be. Please, practice when time permits and don't hesitate to owl me. I am impressed with all of your patience and practice tonight." he finished.

Lily and the others walked out of the hall. She heard the exchange of stories and advice that each had heard after making mistakes. Apparently she had not been the only one who had crushed something on the first attempt. At least, she figured, she had not set fire to her robes as David said he had done. All in all, it had been an interesting lesson.

"It's a pretty neat feeling isn't it? When you first find your magic," Scorpius's voice commented.

Lily drew in a sharp breath and turned around to find that she was not alone like she had thought. "Oh yes. I'm pretty glad we all had our vision blurred, I probably looked silly trying to find it," she laughed nervously.

"So did you get anything to happen?" Scorpius asked politely as they continued to walk towards the Head suite.

"Oh I got my feather to levitate a few times, but never for long. You?" she responded.

"I got my feather to levitate a few times, but never nonverbally," Scorpius said.

"Oh I hadn't even tried nonverbal."

Lily debated during their silence where she was going. She had intended on going back to the Gryffindor dorms to sleep, yet while talking to Scorpius she wanted nothing more than to go back to the Head suite with him, talking about the evening. "-obviously not tonight, but maybe another night? Would you be up for it?" he asked.

"Hm?" Lily asked, shaking her head. "Sorry I zoned out. Finding your inner magic can be exhausting," she said.

"Would you like to practice with me? We can keep each other sharp," he suggested.

Lily considered his offer. She learned fastest when she had competition. She had to be the best at everything. Scorpius would giver her some good competition, and wandless magic did sound like a good skill to have in her arsenal. "Yes, that sounds great. I love some friendly competition," she said, because that was purely the reason why she was doing it.

"Alright, well I'll see you tomorrow then," he said.

Lily looked at him confused. There was still a bit to go before the Head suite. "I figured since lately you had been staying in Gryffindor Tower that tonight would be the same," he said politely.

Lily shook her head. "Oh yes, of course. Lost track of my feet," she said, turning to the fat lady.

"Good night then Lily," he said, looking into her eyes.

"Good night Scorpius," she said. Friendly competition her arse. She couldn't stay away from the kid.

* * *

A/N: Quick update! I hope you all enjoy! This was a fun one for me to write! More soon to come, thanks for reading and reviewing!


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Lily groaned in dismay as she lit her second quill on fire. The smoke soon caught Scorpius's attention and he was quick to extinguish the mess, wandlessly of course. "Lily what is on your mind that you can't focus?" he asked.

Lily sighed. What wasn't on her mind was a more appropriate question. She had to start decorating for the ball that evening in the Great Hall even though the ball wasn't for a few more days. McGonagall had arranged for meals to be eaten in a smaller dining hall on the third floor until the festivities were over. She and Domenique were going dress shopping later that afternoon, a special trip arranged after dinner for all going to the ball. Then there was her astronomy lessons. "People started reporting their findings on Andromeda last night," she admitted.

"That's the galaxy you are studying now in class right?" Scorpius asked, just to be sure.

Lily nodded. "The group looking up muggle findings reported back today with a bunch of information. Apparently muggles have been watching her for a while," she said.

"So you're upset because the nonmagic world is ahead of you?" Scorpius teased.

Lily sent him a warning glare. "They've been predicting some things," she continued. "Although, the predictions are not meant to occur until much later. Actually, it probably would never happen due to the gradual intensifying of the sun causing the sun to explode, thus incinerating the Earth."

Scorpius shot her a look. "And what exactly is not going to happen because of this? More importantly, when is this supposed to happen?"

Lily laughed at his concern. "Keep your pants on, the sun will be around for another five billion years or so."

"Well then what's your worry?"

"Well the muggles have calculated that Andromeda is on a path to collide with our galaxy," she said.

"Well that sounds, er, pleasant," Scorpius responded, sitting down on the couch.

Lily sat next to him. "Usually those types of things cause some pretty big explosions," she said.

"As I said, pleasant. But why are you worried if it's so far off?"

Lily looked out of the window and into the sunny sky. "Andromeda is in a different location every night, growing brighter and brighter as it moves closer and closer," she said.

There was suddenly a knock on the portrait hole. Lily shook her head. "Well that will be Domenique whisking me away to Hogsmeade," she said, faking a gag.

Scorpius laughed as he stood up. "So you're going to the ball then?"

Lily nodded. "I might as well, I've already put so much work into it. And it's a masquerade meaning no one has to know who I am," she said, wiggling her eyebrows as she opened the door for her cousin.

Domenique sent both Lily and Scorpius each a suggestive smile before she pulled her cousin out of the room and off to Hogsmeade, leaving Scorpius alone for the afternoon. He sighed and stepped back into his concentration circle. He had gotten quite good at wandless magic, although he had not quite mastered more complex spells or any at all nonverbally. He hoped to make some progress until Lily returned, or rather if she returned. She had been staying in the Gryffindor Tower lately, and he would be lying if he said he didn't miss having her around.

He practiced for a few more minutes before giving it up, not being able to clear his mind. He instead walked into his room to tend the brewing Polyjuice potion. Nott had been very successful at stealing supplies from the potion cupboards, replacing the items with decoy copies. Scorpius looked over the "To do" list they had made for each day until the potion was to be ready. He added the next few ingredients and stirred the potion until it stopped hissing.

He then went and flopped on his bed, thoroughly exhausted.

Xxx

"Remind me again why I can't wear the dress I wore to the Ministry formal two years ago?" Lily complained as Domenique threw another dress into her arms.

"It's too small and this is your last Hogwarts dance. It deserves the proper attention," she said, looking at the racks again.

"I hope you aren't expecting me to try all of these on," Lily said as she looked at the variety of colors she was holding. "I don't see one color in this lot that I like, or one style."

Domenique whirled around at that instant and pushed them both into the nearest dressing room. Before Lily could scream or react at all, her cousin had gagged her and tied something soft around her eyes. Lily dropped the dressed and tried to pull the thing off of her head with no luck. Domenique laughed quietly. "I thought I'd have some complaints from you. Now you have to trust me to pick out the perfect dress, you leave me with no other options really. You get to be my life size doll for the next hour."

Lily groaned inside. A whole hour of trying dresses on? She didn't even get to see any of them. It was a good thing she knew that Domenique had her best interests in mind and wouldn't purposefully choose the ugliest dress imaginable...or would she? Lily thought hard about what had happened over the last week that may have made Domenique angry. She came up blank. She sighed and allowed herself to be dressed and undressed, spun around, sat down, and scrutinized by her cousin, who remained silent the entire time until, "Oh Lily! This one is it!" she exclaimed.

Lily felt the dress be removed from her body and heard the dressing room door open and close quickly. "I've let off the charm on your mouth and eyes. Get dressed and meet me outside," she commanded.

Lily grumbled as her eyes readjusted to the light in the room. She found her clothes in the corner and slipped back into them as quickly as possible. She was very curious as to which dress Domenique had chosen and was regretting not paying more attention to the selection she had been holding earlier. She exited the dressing room to see her cousin holding two garment bags. "Two?" Lily commented.

Domenique smirked. "Oh, I've had mine picked out since last year."

Lily smiled and rolled her eyes. Domenique was always one to think ahead when it came to dressing up. "Ooo, doesn't that mean it's out of season? 'So last year' as they would say?" Lily teased.

Domenique laughed. "Not this dress. It's perfect," she said. "And so is yours. You will love it!"

"I doubt it," Lily said.

Domenique looked hurt. "Can you please just play along with me, just this once?" she asked.

Lily sighed and nodded. "Good. Now for shoes. Unfortunately, you get more of a say this time. As much as I want you to look like a dazzling princess, I don't want you killing yourself in a ridiculous pair of heels," Domenique commented.

"Full speed ahead," Lily said motioning towards the exit doors.

Xxx

Scorpius rolled out of bed, exhausted after last night's Quidditch practice. He would really like nothing more than to just lay back down and drift off to sleep, lulled by the splashing and hissing of his cauldron. His eyes snapped open and he leaped over his bed to where the partially made Polyjuice potion was leaping out of his cast iron cauldron. "Bloody hell!" he exclaimed as some of the searing hot liquid burned his hand.

He waved his hand instinctively over the flames and they lowered. He was taken slightly aback, he hadn't even thought any incantation, his magic simply just knew what to do! He tried a spell to clean up the mess, with no success. He sighed. Maybe the key to wandless magic was that it had to be an instinct, a natural part of life. Scorpius was able to calm the potion and he hoped he had no lost too much of the final product.

One glance at his clock told him he had a few moments to spare before he needed to start heading down to the breakfast hall. "Take a shower, or eat?" he asked himself out loud.

His stomach rumbled, he had his answer. He threw on his uniform and robes and quickly headed down to the Great Hall, stopping only to grab his bag from the common room. He arrived at his usual seat to find the morning edition of the Daily Prophet sitting on his plate.

"I paid the fee for you, I didn't want the bird making a mess of the table," Nott said, seeing Scorpius's curious eyes linger on the paper.

"Oh, well thanks. I don't usually read the thing anyway," he commented, making a move to stow the Prophet in his bag.

"Er, you should probably read this one, at least the article on page five," Nott said before he awkwardly resumed eating his eggs.

Scorpius opened the paper to page five as his friend suggested. He started reading, unimpressed and slightly grossed out at the article until he read a familiar name. His stomach fell to the floor.

xXx

_Tragsman was dead_. Lily kept thinking those words over and over again in her head as she lay, staring at the canopy above her head. What did it mean? _Well_, she thought to herself, _it means that he is no longer alive._ But what else did it mean? Could it possibly mean that she could throw all worry of the prophecy away, because she was kind of hoping that was what the answer was. _Tragsman + prophecy = huge problem and unhappiness so therefore if you take Tragsman out of the equation you would get something entirely different outcome, unless of course you replace Tragsman with his equal._ Lily shook her head. That was utter nonsense. Life wasn't really like a math equation after all. There were so many other factors, unknown variables if you will, that had so much weight on the final outcome.

The only way that the prophecy wouldn't exist is if Tragsman had made it up, but now there was no real way of finding that out. Lily sighed and jumped out of her bed and walked out into the Head's suite, unsure of where she was going. Her life, however, had decided to add a variable into her plans.

"Hey Lily," Scorpius said, walking out of his room at the same time she exited hers.

Lily laughed, slightly startled. "What a coincidence."

He laughed as well and motioned for her to walk down the short stair case first. She reached the bottom, and something held her in place, waiting for him. "I read about Tragsman in the Prophet today," she said, looking at her feet.

"Yeah, quite a piece of unexpected news," he said, stepping off of the last step.

They stood there looking at each other for a moment, each thinking the thoughts that had been running through Lily's head earlier. "What does it mean?" she finaly asked.

Scorpius gave her a confused look. "I mean as far as your job prospects at the Ministry and well the prophecy and such," she said quickly and very nervously.

Scorpius hesitated for a moment. "It doesn't really mean anything for my job prospects, not really interested in his department. And as for the later," he paused, "I don't think I really care."

Lily was taken aback. He didn't care? As in he didn't care about _them, _whatever they were or would be? Lily stared at him, unable to speak and felt the heat rise to her cheeks. "Oh, Lily! I- I didn't mean it like that. I didn't mean to say that I don't care about us," he said quickly, taking away the few strides that had remained between them. He drew in a deep breath. "I just meant that I don't care about what it means. I've only ever really cared because you cared."

Lily nodded into his chest which was now up against her cheek. She inhaled the familiar scent of his cologne and felt her thoughts roaming freely around her mind, no order or reason to them. She felt his arms snake around her waist and his chin rest upon her head. She still hadn't moved her body, confused at what she should feel, what she should do. "Please Lily, please tell me that you don't care as well," he pleaded softly, holding her tighter.

She closed her eyes, an unfamiliar burning growing stronger and stronger behind her lids. She tried to picture them, how they must look standing in an embrace in the middle of the common room. Red hair cascading down his black robes, his pale hands caressing her arms and waist. She couldn't help but smile to herself, remembering how happy her parents looked when they had these stolen moments together, because she and Scorpius must look equally as happy at this moment.

The thought of her parents, however, wiped the smile from her face. "I – I can't Scor," she whispered, trying to sound strong.

He pulled away from her slightly, just enough to see her face. "What do you mean, you can't?"

"My family," she said.

"I don't care anymore Lily, I don't care what your family or my family thinks of us being together," he said.

"That's not what I meant!"

"Then what do you mean?" he said, staring into her eyes.

Lily took a few deep breaths and tried not to lose herself in his gaze. "I can't endanger their lives, or anyone else's," she said.

A pained expression came over Scorpius's face and he grasped her arms tighter when she tried to move out of them. "We don't even know if it's true! I don't even know if I heard the whole bloody thing!" he said, trying to calm his sudden burst of anger.

"Scor, we promised we'd try to make this easy for each other," she said, not looking at him.

His heart fell. "The first time I heard that stupid thing, my only thoughts were of you, of being with you. Thoughts of being more than just a casual relationship with you, you know, like forever," he breathed, calming himself as he maneuvered his arm to hold her hand.

She shook her head. "We agreed, both of us, that the rest could be dangerous!"

"Yeah, but there is also the chance that it wouldn't be! We can shape our own destiny! There is a chance that it could be the best thing that has ever happened to our world, to us," he said. "Are you really willing to ignore that?"

"Tragsman is dead. Are you really that willing to see our peers die because of our selfishness?" she yelled releasing everything she had been holding inside.

"It doesn't have to be like that! It won't be like that," he promised.

"But it could be. I won't watch the people I care about suffer, because of something I could have stopped."

"You're suffering! And don't try to tell me that you're not! I see the look in your eyes; it's how I feel every time I look at you. I'm suffering just as you are," he said, as he turned her face to look at his.

Lily felt her lip quiver and took her hand from his, taking a step back. "That doesn't change the fact that we don't know if you heard the whole thing, and if you didn't, we don't know what the ending to it was. We can't make this decision now!" she said, angrily.

"So then why was it so easy for you to decide to break it off?" he almost yelled back at her.

Lily was taken aback by his accusation. "You think it was easy for me to even suggest?" she shrieked, dangerously close to unleashing her inner-Weasley.

"Do you think it's easy for me to be this close to you every day?" he exclaimed walking nearer to her again. He grabbed her arms and held her firmly, despite her struggles."Tell me the truth Lily, how hard is it for you to stand this close to me right now, knowing everything we had between us," he whispered, drawing his face closer to hers. She froze in his arms. "Knowing every touch we shared," he said caressing her cheek with his finger tips. "Every stolen glance," he said looking into her eyes. "Every kiss."

Lily was shaking out of fear, anger, anticipation, nerves, and joy all at the same time. She moved her mouth a few times, but nothing ever escaped. Her eyes moved from his gray ones to his lips and she felt herself shudder slightly. What did she want? Did she want him to kiss her? _Yes_,_ Merlin yes she did,_ she thought to herself. She felt his arms pull her closer to him in her silence. She looked back up at his searching gray eyes before she closed her own. She heard the sound of his breath getting closer and felt his nose brush up against her cheek, where he paused for a moment. "Merlin, I've missed you," he whispered lightly.

Lily's mind snapped back into focus and she found herself pulling away from him suddenly. She still had somethings she needed to work out before she could commit to him again. She started to walk away from him, towards the portrait hole. "Why?" he said angrily.

She paused, not turning back to look at him. "Why did you even bring it up?" he continued. She continued to walk to the portrait hole, more slowly this time, taking in deep breaths. "Yeah, go ahead and run away, because that's what you do when things get hard isn't it?" he said cruelly, before turning back to go into his room. He closed his door and heard her let out a loud sob before he heard the portrait hole finally open and close. He sat down on his bed and put his head in his hands, severely regretting what he had just yelled.

* * *

A/N: Another pretty rapid update. I was influenced by some requests for some "action" to write the end part of this scene, even though it ended up being just a teaser. More to come though! Soon, I promise! Now I can start getting into scence I wrote back in April, before I had even posted this fic. I have decided to make this a two part story, the second installment will be shorter, but hopefully interesting and tie everything together. I also had an idea come to me this morning for a Lily Scorpius fic that is less plot oriented as this one turned out to be. So for all of you looking for some more togetherness, I will be writing another, completely different fic hopefully soon. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

She was crying, hard. It was too early in the night still to be able to walk into the Gryffindor common room without being noticed. It was prime essay crunching hour. Of course, her cloak was in her room and an astronomy class was going on. Although Professor Reed had said she didn't care if Lily came up to record Andromeda's movements during her other class times, the fact remained that it was not the time that Lily had chosen as her nightly recording time. Also, she figured Reed would not appreciate her wails and sniffles.

She sat by a suit of armor and tried to calm herself. She got her volume level under control, but she was still crying. She definitely planned to work out the reasoning behind her tears, but doing so she figured would only produce more. First things first, find a place to work this out.

She heard a set of light foot steps down the hall. Why didn't she at least choose somewhere out of sight to come up with her next move? She mentally slapped herself. A girl with shining black hair rounded the corner and stared at Lily with her dark blue eyes. Lily smiled at her, hoping the distance was too large for her friend to see her tears. Unfortunately, Jocelyn sent her a look of great concern and rushed over to her side. "Lily, what is the matter?" she asked, kneeling down to eye level.

Lily wiped her eyes. "Oh nothing really," she said. "Just stressed over classes and all."

Jocelyn scoffed. "Really, come on Lily. We've been friends for years, and although you don't tell me everything that happens in your life, I have a particular gift for determining when you are upset. Are you going to tell me what this is all about or do you want me to get Dom?" she asked.

Lily sighed. Dom probably was not the best person to talk about this issue with, she could use a fresh perspective on the matter. Lily drew in a deep breath. "We need somewhere to talk. I'll tell you everything."

Jocelyn nodded, internally excited at the prospect of finally being let in to Lily's most troubling problem as of late. She thought for a moment. "Room of Requirement?" she asked.

Lily nodded. "How can we get down there without being noticed?" she asked.

Jocelyn rolled her eyes. "You do realize that you are Head Girl right?" she laughed. "That pretty much gives you the excuse to go anywhere within reason. If we are caught, which is highly unlikely, just say that I heard something from the hall when coming back from my detention with Flitwick and you brought me along to find the exact location," she suggested.

Xxx

"...and now I can't help but think back to something my father used to tell me years ago when I first started school," Lily said. "Living a life outlined by a predetermined destiny isn't as much fun as it may seem. Sure, you know what your ultimate goal is and have a somewhat general idea of how to get there, assuming you run into the right people and are given the right information, but you also live with the idea that you can't do anything else but this predetermined thing. You can't live life the way you want to. It makes you do a lot of things that you feel that you have to, and not necessarily do things because you want to," she quoted her father. "He said that some choices he had to make almost cost him his happiness with my mother."

Jocelyn remained silent, partially because she had no response and partially because she sensed that Lily had more to say. "When I was standing that close to Scorpius I really wanted to let things happen. He was going to kiss me, maybe more by the look in his eyes, and I wanted to let it happen. I think I'm tired of depriving myself of the things I want in life because of this prophecy. Growing up I used to want some great adventure in my life, I wanted to save people like my father did."

"Maybe the only way to save people is to let this thing between you and Scorpius play out," Jocelyn commented, finally.

Lily nodded. "That is what I've been thinking. But what if I open up this huge can of worms?"

"Well did the prophecy say anything was guaranteed to happen?" she asked.

Lily shook her head. "Scorpius doesn't even know if he heard the whole thing; I'm not even sure I believe the thing is legit," she said.

"That's not like you, Lily, to act on something you don't believe to be true."

She sighed. "I know, I know. Maybe it was because I wanted a sense of adventure and purpose in my life," she paused for a moment as she came to a realization, remembering something Scorpius had just said. "Or maybe I was just too afraid to tell everyone about us. We were planning on telling everyone over the summer. I was so nervous about my father's reaction that maybe I just took the prophecy as the easy way out," she said. "Scorpius was right, I do just run away when things get hard."

"That is not true at all, and you know it. You are one of the strongest people I know," Jocelyn told her friend.

"Then why do I feel so weak?"

"Because you are uncertain about the outcomes of your actions, and these are certainly big actions with equally huge outcomes," Jocelyn replied. "Just do what you want, and deal with the rest later. Dom and I will always be here for you, along with your whole family if things turn out badly, which for the record, I don't believe that they will."

Lily took in a deep breath and considered everything that they had just talked about. "I think I want to just let things happen between me and Scorpius. I'm tired of fighting it off," she decided firmly.

Jocelyn smiled. "There you go."

Lily smiled and exhaled a breath that she felt she had been holding for a very long time. "Come on, let's get to bed. You have a huge match tomorrow, and you have to somehow find the time to decorate for the ball," Jocelyn reminded her.

xXx

She was flying. The snitch was inches away from her outstretched hand. She urged her broom forward, feeling the Ravenclaw seeker come up on her right side. Just a little bit farther and she would have a Gryffindor victory in her hand. She could hear them chanting her name in the stands. Suddenly the seeker slammed into her. "Lily get up!" a voice said in the distance.

Why should she get up? Sure the seeker had cobbed her, but not hard enough to knock her to the ground. The sound of the stands started to disappear, as she got whacked again, this time by a hand. Lily opened her eyes to see the thin outline of her cousin, Domenique standing over her. She moaned and tried to roll over, didn't the girl realize it was a Saturday? It couldn't even be past ten yet.

"Come on Lily! You've slept through breakfast and almost all of lunch!" Domenique said.

Okay so maybe it was passed ten. Lily sighed and sat up, rubbing her eyes and stretching her arms. She looked over at her cousin again, who was shaking her head. "Rough night?" she asked.

"Every night after a Quidditch match is a rough night," Lily smirked, as she stood up.

Domenique rolled her eyes, and groaned as she took in Lily's appearance. Her red hair seemed to have multiplied over night and the wind from the Quidditch pitch made the soft curls extremely unruly. "You're really lucky you had me, Joss, and all of the female prefects yesterday morning to help you set up the Great Hall for tonight. Otherwise, there is no way it would have been ready. You better eat fast, it looks like I have my work cut out for me today."

Lily groaned. The ball. She had made a promise with herself after her conversation with Jocelyn that if Scorpius was at the ball she would tell him what she had decided, if she found him that is. It was all too nerve wracking. "Or we could just do plan B," Lily suggested.

"Oh and what might that be?"

"Not go, obviously. We could sneak into Hogsmeade and visit Uncle George's shop!"

"No Lily! I've let you pass on the last two years, but this is your final year Lils. You have to go! Besides, you're Head Girl and you pretty much planned the whole thing. Enjoy the fruits of your labor!" she said, dragging her cousin out of the dormitory after seeing that she had put on some clothes and pulled back her hair, a feat that amazed Domenique.

Xxx

Although she would never admit it, Lily truly like the dress her cousin had chosen for her to wear. It was a talent of Domenique's, picking out things that complemented Lily's hidden feminine side. Lily lightly fingered the rhinestone shoulder straps that crossed into an elegant knot just below her shoulder blades before they connected to the lower sides of her dress.

She took a deep breath before pulling the dress off of the hanger. She slipped the shimmery, silk, baby blue dress over her head, taking care to move her arms into the right straps. It clung tightly to her body until her hips where it loosened to flow ever the rest of her body. This tightness made Lily nervous, but after looking in the mirror, she realized it fit her perfectly. She traced the design of crisscrossed pleated strips that made up the torso of the dress. It was simple, yet elegant, and definitely not flashy, which was good.

She used the remaining time that she had alone to examine her appearance from every angle. Even without her hair laying limply down her back and with the dark half moons under her eyes, she still thought she looked stunning. She pulled her hair back in her hands. Yes, it would definitely have to go up to show off the back of the dress, which was her favorite part. She twirled around slowly, watching as the surrounding light was caught by the satin, emitting a shimmery aura around her. She definitely would not be unnoticed at this ball, maybe this time she actually wanted to be noticed.

Lily abruptly dropped her hair from her hands when she heard Domenique exit the bathroom back into their room. "Lily Potter. Were you just eying yourself in that mirror whilst playing with your hair?" her cousin laughed.

Lily blushed. Domenique shook her head. "You were right though, about your hair needing to be put up. I'm thinking loose curls held up in an offset ponytail made created from small sections of your hair. Loose face framing curls are a must, and we'll curl your fringe slightly."

Lily didn't understand half of what her cousin just told her, but nodded her head anyway as she sat down on the poof in front of the mirror. She watched as Domenique got to work with her wand first, using a smoothing charm to straighten and tame her flowing red locks. She then got to work on styling. With the aid of magic, it was only twenty minutes before she was telling Lily to close her eyes and hold her breath as the immovable hair fixer was applied (guaranteed to last until its counter spray is applied!).

When the haze cleared and the air was breathable again, Domenique held out a wide, flat white box to Lily. She opened it and found a pair of large cubic zirconium studs, along with a three layered cubic zirconium choker, and a single stretchy cubic zirconium bracelet.

"Just one more thing," Domenique said as she twisted a white lily flower into the pony tail's base. "Okay, make up time."

Lily turned around on the poof, silently, and closed her eyes signaling her face was in her cousin's hands. The last ball Lily had gone to, Domenique spent forever applying different things to her face. This time, however, Lily only felt a few different brushes swipe across her face before, "Oh wow Lily. Just wait till you see yourself!"

She handed Lily a pair of silver strappy heels, which she slipped on carefully. Lily then stood up with her cousin's help and turned around to find an elegant girl standing before her, mouth drawn into a small 'o'. "This has to be my best creation yet. Lily, I'm two seconds away from demanding that you trade with me for the night, but only you could make this dress look this good," her cousin admired.

Lily felt herself blush again. "Aren't you going to get ready?" she asked, taking the attention off of herself.

"Hmm? Oh yes," she said, snapping her attention back to her own garment bag that was hanging on the wardrobe.

"Want any help?" Lily offered.

Domenique laughed. "Just sit there and look pretty. And don't go messing up my beautiful artwork!" she commanded, slipping her own dress over her head.

She had picked out a long, strapless, bright pink dress. It hugged her body nicely until her upper thighs where the dress started flaring outward. There were wide pleats starting at this point, and the dress was accented with a silver thread pattern, crisscrossing up and down the dress. She stood in front of the mirror for several seconds before proceeding to wind her hair into medium tight curls, finishing by pinning the hair that framed her face back behind her head with a large silver butterfly clip. She stuck on a pair of elaborate diamond earrings and necklace with a tear drop shaped pendant. She made her make up a tad bit more elaborate than Lily's before declaring herself finished.

"You make it look so easy," Lily said, in awe.

"Is this your way of asking me to teach you my secrets?" she asked, raising her eye brows.

Lily shrugged. "Maybe eventually."

Domenique smiled, realizing it took a lot for her cousin to admit this to her. It made her proud knowing that some of her fashion sense had started to rub of on her cousin. "Well let's go then," she said, slipping on her heels.

Lily slowly crossed the room, getting used to the heels on her feet. "I feel unnaturally tall," she giggled.

Domenique caught up to her in a few short strides. "This is why you should have come with to the other balls. Practice, practice, practice!"

Lily groaned as her cousin flew past her and opened the door. Lily slowly walked through it and held her breath as she walked down the stairs to the common room. She felt the eyes of the younger students move from their text books to her. She crossed the common room as quickly as possible, feeling the blush rise even more in her cheeks, and took care to pick up her dress as she moved out of the portrait hole. "Nice start," Domenique complimented.

They had made it to the grand staircase without any serious injuries. Lily almost lost her balance once on a moving staircase, but she was quickly stabilized by her cousin. She took a step towards their final flight of stairs when Domenique pulled her back. "I didn't want to give this to you before, as it would probably have made walking here a lot more difficult. However, now that you are about to walk gracefully into sight of the rest of the school, you must put on a mask."

Lily groaned. "Who's idea was this mask thing anyway?"

"Yeah, whoever approved these final plans was an idiot," Domenique said, glaring at her.

Okay so she had approved the masquerade theme. In her defense, it was when she still had no plans of attending. But here she was, and to go any farther required a mask. Domenique was holding a simple white satin mask out to her. Lily accepted and allowed her cousin to properly put it on. Her own mask was black, with a large pink feather. "Alright, we are all set and ready to go!" Domenique said excitedly.

They made their way in silence down to the grand staircase. The staircase itself was decorated with white and black satin ribbons and different flower arrangements stationed at the bottom of the steps. She noticed several pairs of eyes staring, and felt herself continue to blush all of the way through the Entrance Hall and into the Great Hall. She was used to attention, heck she even liked it. But this was an entirely different thing than playing Quidditch. In the game, people watched how you played and what you were doing. At a ball, people just watch you, what you look like. Lily felt so naked, and was suddenly glad she was wearing a mask.

She looked around the Great Hall and smiled at the decorations. There were candles floating in groups of three at various points in the hall, the tables were donned with red, blue, yellow, or green table clothes to represent the four houses. Each table also contained an elaborate display of flowers and refilling plates. The food on the appetizer tables looked divine, the house elves certainly had been busy during the day. There was three different punch fountains on the punch table, along with a variety of glasses. It was perfect, she had to admit.

"Hey look, that looks like Joss's dress. I'm almost positive," Domenique said, pointing to the other side of the hall. "So that guy next to her must be our cousin."

Lily concentrated on walking gracefully over to Jocelyn. She nonchalantly tried to comb every inch of the hall with her eyes, looking for Scorpius. In all honesty, and Lily knew that being honest with yourself is the most important thing you can do, he was the reason she was here tonight. She knew it was selfish and wrong, but it was the truth. Yet, as much as she wanted to find him, it might be much easier if he decided not to come.

Xxx

Two hours into the ball, Lily had danced herself out. Domenique had kept to her word that she would have a good, fun night. Now, her feet were screaming at her, and she could feel the warmth in her cheeks from dancing. She excused herself to grab some punch, leaving Domenique and a seventh year Ravenclaw, Sarah, dancing to the next up beat song.

Lily helped herself to some of the pink punch, Strawberry Watermelon WOW, and leaned back against the table as she sipped. She hadn't seen anyone that even looked remotely like him. Damn these stupid masks. She wished there was some way of telling if he was even here. What if he hadn't come at all? What if he was just sitting around upstairs in their common room?

She smiled as she saw Domenique share another dance with a man in a green mask. She sighed and placed her empty cup on the table, where it promptly vanished. She started to move away from the table when a soft hand grabbed her arm at the elbow. She turned and the black masked boy took her hand in his. "Can I have this dance?" he asked.

Lily looked past his mask and into a pair of gorgeously familiar gray eyes. _Oh Merlin_. She nodded before she could stop herself, and the boy pulled her close to him quickly, as if fearing she would run away. She found herself relaxing in his protective grip, winding her arms around the back of his neck. As he held her she couldn't help but think that this is where she belonged. His arms made her feel safe, his eyes made her feel wanted, his words made her feel beautiful. And those lips, oh those lips were pure heaven, she remembered as she glanced at them suddenly.

Well he was here, which meant she had to tell him how she felt. Lily controlled her breathing and tried to enjoy the moment, despite the butterflies dancing in her stomach. They danced in slow circles, their eyes never losing contact. He grabbed one of her hands so that they could dance in the more traditional style. Lily could feel a pulsing of energy flowing wherever their skin touched. She heard the song start to slow all too soon. She closed her eyes tightly. When she opened them, Lily realized that they had stopped spinning. The rest of the world was moving around them, yet they remained still, hand in hand.

It was he who broke the gaze first. He looked down at their hands and Lily felt compelled to look as well. It was a beautiful sin, she thought.

"Will you come with me?" he asked softly, motioning towards the door that lead out to the grounds.

Lily froze. She nodded and allowed him to lead her out of the Great Hall. It was a pretty tame evening for this late in October. She was slightly chilly, but the air was thankfully still. She could smell the crispness of late autumn, a smell she had always loved as a girl. She could hear animals rustling in the fallen leaves near the edge of the Forbidden Forest. There were still some plants that were hanging onto their foliage, making this season a true limbo between life and death. The moon was bright and was reflecting brilliantly off of the lake's smooth surface. It was truly a gorgeous sight.

A harsh wind suddenly whipped against Lily's face, waking her from her trance. This was it. Her moment to tell him that they could be together. She was excited, yet ridiculously nervous at this prospect. However, it seemed that he had something to say, and she would let him talk first since he asked her to come outside with him.

"Listen, Lily," Scorpius started. "I have a few things to say. I want to begin by apologizing for my behavior a few nights ago," he continued as they drew closer to the lake.

Lily just nodded, unable to form words. Would she be able to tell him all that she had decided? Tell him that they could find a way around the problem after all? She decided to wait to hear what else he had to say.

He drew in a deep breath. "I also want you to know that I greatly respect your strength, strength I do not have with our current situation. Of course I want whatever will make you happy," he said, turning to her and grabbing her arm.

_Oh please, kiss me,_ Lily thought. _Give me another chance at a few nights ago,_ she pleaded in her head.

"And if making you happy means making absolutely sure that you family is safe, I will make the remainder of the year easier for you," he sighed.

Lily's heart crashed. What was he saying? He was supposed to fight for her, always! Now he sounded like he was giving up. Maybe she should have spoken first.

"We will only see each other in class and for Head duties this term, and after the holidays I will step down from my responsibilities as Head Boy," he said. "I believe that this is the only way to make it easier on both of us. This way I will not constantly have this urge to kiss you or touch you, and you will not have to be subjected to my pleads for our relationship," he finished.

Lily could still form no words. She was in shock at what he was saying. He was giving up, after this term she would never get another chance to start things with him. She opened her mouth to tell him that this was not at all what she wanted, but he started talking again, not noticing her feeble attempt.

"I want to let you know that you do look stunningly beautiful tonight," he said as he pulled her into a hug. "This is where I leave you," he whispered into her ear.

Lily was frozen, unable to hug him back, let alone process what he was thinking. This was it. Their last physical, warm embrace. "I also want you to know that I will never stop needing you," he whispered.

With that, he let her go and walked back up to the castle, leaving Lily utterly alone. She had missed her chance.

* * *

A/N: Well that was the ball! Probably only a few (like 2 or 3) chapters left of part one of this fic. Then everything will get wrapped up in part two. So...will Lily take the easy way out that Scorpius presented to her? Thanks for your reviews and comments!


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

The morning after the ball Lily felt nervous and anxious. A week later, she was a complete mess. She saw Scorpius in the halls more than ever it seemed, although they had no direct contact nor had they been alone together since the ball. She couldn't concentrate for more than five minutes and felt like someone was watching her constantly. She was going crazy.

She walked into the Gryffindor common room after a particularly long day to find Domenique and Lysander talking by the fire (apparently they had hit it off at the ball). Her cousin motioned for her to join them and Lily gladly occupied the vacant arm chair. They chatted idly about things that really didn't matter: classes, plans for winter break, the upcoming Ravenclaw vs. Hufflepuff match (which actually did matter), and the ugly change in weather over the week.

They were just discussing the later, Domenique insisting that a winter shopping trip was in order, when an owl flew in through the cracked window and dropped a letter on Lily's lap. The handwriting on the front made her heart leap; it was his writing. Her mind ran wild. Perhaps it was a letter requesting her to meet with him. He must had changed his mind again, this must mean he wanted to be with her. She took a moment to calm herself and slit open the letter.

She had the first assumption right, he did want to meet with her, but not to spill his heart out. It was a request to change their meeting time from seven to eight that night. Lily sighed. She had almost forgotten about their plans to write the monthly report to McGonagall. She scribbled a reply back saying that it would be fine.

"What was that about?" Domenique asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Oh just a reminder about my meeting with Scorpius. Head stuff," Lily replied.

"Why did you look all frazzled then?" she pressed.

Lily glared at her cousin. It was so obvious she did not want to talk about it right now. "He requested a later time, meaning we have less time to write the report before I'm due in the astronomy tower," she replied through gritted teeth.

This time it was Lysander who made a comment. "I thought seventh years weren't due for an astronomy lesson until next week."

Lily looked at him, trying to calm her facial expression from sheer annoyance to slightly calm. "A project we are doing requires nightly charting of the galaxy Andromeda," she said, looking for some way to leave the room.

"My mother's father used to tell me about that place," he said.

"Really?" Lily asked, now interested.

"There was a wizarding war a very long time ago-"

Domenique rolled her eyes. "A natural Professor Binns this one," she said jokingly.

Lily glanced at her and gestured for Lysander to continue. "He said that there was a disagreement between two old wizarding tribes regarding how to wield magic. One tribe believed in getting in touch with the magic flowing through one's body. They believed that more powerful and accurate magic could be used if one could only understand his own body and how it channels magic. However, the other tribe insisted that it was safer to channel magic through wands. There was less room for accidents and unintentional use, however it was less powerful. The feud was never really settled, but the second tribe wanted to act before the first tribe had the chance to overpower them," he paused.

"I'm not quite sure how all of this stuff works, but my granddad said something about the alignment of stars and a very dark piece of magic. Well, all in all, the second tribe banished the first tribe to the Galaxy Andromeda where they could live in peace and not threaten the wanded tribe."

"But Andromeda can't sustain life. Muggles have tried and tried to obtain clues that there is life there, but have come up empty handed," Lily interjected.

"Magic can make things hidden, can it not? Hogwarts itself is hidden from the muggle eye," Lysander said.

Lily sat back in her chair and contemplated this information for several minutes. "Well Lysander and I were going to get a snack from the kitchens. Do you want anything Lily?" Domenique asked.

Lily shook her head and continued to stare into the fire. "Well while we're gone, can you try to look a bit less murderous and creepy? You're scaring the first years," Domenique joked.

Lily scowled, stood up, and walked up the stairs to her dormitory where she laid in bed thinking until it was time for her to meet with Scorpius.

Xxx

Lily looked up as she heard the door open. Scorpius nodded at her as he entered their library, taking the seat across from her. He pulled out his quill and parchment and began writing his section of the report. Lily took this as her cue to also begin. She couldn't concentrate. What had happened in the past month? There was the ball, regular boring rounds. She couldn't think. While it was deathly quiet in the room, Lily's head was screaming. They were the same thoughts that had been screaming through her head the entire, strengthened by his presence in the room.

Just when she had worked everything out in her head, deciding that she wanted to be with him, he had to go and be all considerate. Why couldn't he have tried just one more time to get her to see things his way. Maybe then there wouldn't be this awkward tension and silence between them. They would have said hello, or even kissed hello. Lily licked her lips and felt a jolt in her stomach. Oh what she would give to kiss him right now.

But how serious had be been about his decision? How would he react if she decided to tell him everything she was feeling? Just last week she had had her mind set on telling him, yet now she couldn't do it. Well, in her defense, she thought, it wasn't a conversation you could just bring up out of the blue whist writing a report. But technically, she wasn't really writing at the moment. She had successfully written the date on the page and a general list of happenings. Was she even holding her quill anymore?

A gust of wind blew in from the window and picked up her abandoned report, along with the spare sheets of parchment lying between her and Scorpius. She had been so lost in thought she hadn't even remembered when she stopped writing. She watched as the sheets were violently blown across the room. They both simultaneously moved out of their chairs to grab the pages. Her breath caught in her chest when their hands unexpectedly touched as they reached for the same page. She looked up to see his gray eyes widen. He didn't jerk his hand away as she expected, and neither did she. She felt him start to pull away when her body acted on its own free will and pulled his face close to hers.

_Now or never Lily, _she told herself. Her eyes closed and her lips found his. She heard him gasp when their lips touched. His lips were just as soft as she had remembered, he tasted the same as she remembered. She let his scent wash over her as they shared their much needed hesitant kiss. It was over too quickly, and soon he was slowly pulling away from her. He looked into her eyes, searching for something. She grabbed his face in her hand before he could back away anymore; she was not letting him go this time, not when she had tormented herself over this moment for months. She traced a light circle on his cheek with her thumb. "I need you," she whispered.

She heard him take a sharp breath as she kissed him more forcefully than she had before. He soon relaxed and wound his hands into her hair, deepening their kiss. She kissed him with all of the anger, fear, and longing that had built inside of her over the past half of a year. Her hands were pulling at him as well, keeping him as close to her as was possible. She heard a soft moan from the back of his throat as their tongues met and began their exploration of familiar territory.

They stopped to catch their breath, leaving their foreheads pressed together. Scorpius fingered her hair lightly as she continued to cling to him for dear life. Why she thought she would be able to live the rest of her life without moments like that was a mystery. They pulled away, and Lily saw a smile form on his face. "I've missed that," he said quietly.

Lily bit her lip, suddenly nervous. "I've missed you," she replied.

Then a troubled look came across his face, making Lily frown. "What about everything you said to me that one night?" he asked her.

She sighed. "I talked everything out with Joss. She just let me talk and talk, and I said things that I had never thought of before. All in all, I decided that I didn't want my life to be governed by a prophecy, especially one that we don't know the rest of and aren't even sure if it is real," she said frantically, needing him to understand.

"I promise that we will find some sort of solution to everything. I don't know what the future holds, but I do know that I have nothing without you," he said, grasping her hand tightly.

Lily found herself suddenly in his arms, crying her eyes out. She was a mess, a great big happy, nervous, relieved mess. He held her tightly, rubbing his hands along her back, causing her to shiver. "What is it?"

Lily tried to calm herself and put her thoughts into words. "I feel so selfish, wanting you. I've realized that either path I go down I'll be miserable in the end. This past summer was miserable, every night that I went to sleep on the other side of the wall from you was miserable. Yet if I choose to be with you, the world could suffer," she gasped. "I had these dreams over the summer of everyone just dying around me."

"Lily, everything will be okay. As you said, there are so many uncertainties about this prophecy. Can we please just let everything play out?" he asked.

Lily nodded into his shoulder, unable to speak. Scorpius held her for a minute longer before pulling her away from him. He looked into her watered eyes and tear stained cheeks. "You are so beautiful right now," he whispered, holding her face in his hands.

Lily blushed and closed her eyes as he moved down to kiss her again. There was a new desire pulsing through her body, working its way into her mind and all of her limbs. She had never felt this intensity from him before. His kisses were driving her crazy with want and desire for more. She moaned as his lips moved down to her neck, slowly, lightly kissing a trail to her collar bone and back up to her mouth again. She wanted his lips to be everywhere on her body, the places he head left behind were burning. She pulled at his hair and crushed his lips harder to her own. They were both breathing frantically now, using the oxygen in the air to fuel the fire growing between them.

They had had some intense moments during their relationship, but none as much as this. Lily was filled with this need for him to touch her, for them to be closer and closer to each other. A piece of her mind strayed back to the prophecy, but the rest of her mind pushed it away. _This is my life, and I want this right now, with Scorpius, _she thought firmly.

She grabbed one of his hands and placed it under her shirt, on the bare skin of her stomach, needing him to touch her. He tentatively did so, unsure of what to do or where his boundaries were. Lily's mind was screaming that there were none, not tonight and certainly not for him. He ran his fingers over her stomach lightly, tracing her softly defined muscles. Lily shivered under his feather light touch and felt him smile against her mouth. She pulled him closer to her, kissing him fiercely now, needing him to understand how much she needed him. She tugged lightly at his hair with one hand as her other hand roughly worked its way up his shirt. She ran her hand along his muscles as she brought one of her legs up around his waist.

Scorpious froze above her and she could practically hear the 'click' as his mind put together the pieces of their current situation. She laid still below him, and opened her eyes to find his gray ones staring into hers. He looked at her for a moment as if considering something, before pulling their faces back together. His lips were dominating hers this time, and his hands felt more sure of themselves as they worked their way around her slim body. She moaned softly as his hands moved over her, and she felt him tighten against her as hers moved over him. She found herself pulling at his tie, and, without missing a beat, he was working at the buttons on her shirt.

They were under a blanket now; Lily was not sure which of them had conjured it. He began kissing down her neck again, and she moved her arm back over her head, placing her wand on top of the pile of their clothes. Scorpious did a few final waves with his wand before tossing it over by her own. They stared into each others eyes again for a moment before Lily gasped, "I need you, I need this."

"Merlin Lily, you have no idea," he managed to say before he planted a sweet kiss on her forehead.

Xxx

Scorpius woke the next morning and was aware of two things: he was in his bed at the Head suite, and that he was not alone. He smiled as he curled his arms tighter around his sleeping flower, the bare skin of her back touching the skin on his chest. Lily rolled over into him, burying her face into his neck, sighing lightly. She looked content, which calmed a lurking fear in the back of Scorpius's mind. It had been perfect, there was nothing to regret. She was his again, and he was hers in the most physical and emotional ways possible.

He looked over to the corner of the room where the Polyjuice potion was simmering. He could get rid of it that day. The prophecy was behind them. Nothing would ruin today, or so he thought.

* * *

A/N: You've all been waiting for this chapter for a while, so I hope I did it justice! Also, in case anyone is interested in a less plot oriented Lily/Scorpius fic, I have posted the first chapter of Rule of Five. Thanks again for reading and for all of the lovely reviews!


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

A dark figure strolled down the dimly lit street, occasionally illuminated by the moon rays shining through the night clouds, or by the stars, one oddly bright one in particular. The figure walked briskly, almost to the end of the street, when it paused outside of an olive green door with a brass knocker. It walked up the few steps, and the door was opened for him, although no one appeared to be standing on the other side.

There was a black cat laying on the sill of an open window, and if cats could talk, it would have this tale to tell. The owner of the house was startled from his doze in his living room armchair by the loud footsteps of the intruder.

"What business do you have here?" he asked.

"You didn't listen," the intruder stated.

The owner's face turned to stone. "How did you find me?"

"You taught them wandless magic," the intruder pressed on.

The owner stuttered before finding the power and guts to continue. "And they had a right to know! Damn all of your magical purity crap! If your world is coming here, they have a right to know how to fit in!"

"My world? Are you forgetting it was also yours before you fell from grace?" the intruder smirked.

"Best thing I ever did!"

The intruder paced the room a few times. "I hate to do this to you friend, but the ways have changed since you left. I believe someone came to inform you before your little charade at the second rate magic school."

"Hogwarts is a fine institution! Lots of promising talent!"

"It seems we don't want talent that needs a stick to channel its power. They will be second best when we come here, and we intend on showing them that."

"But they can learn! They can become our level!" the owner insisted, pleading.

The intruder continued to smirk. "We don't want them at our level, just as they didn't want us at theirs when they exiled us all of those years ago."

The owner's face fell. "What is going to happen to them?"

The intruder shrugged. "Most likely the same thing that is going to happen to you, if they are lucky," the intruder said, closing his eyes.

There was a loud noise from the house that caused the cat to jump from the sill, hissing at the red shutters surrounding the window it had just been sitting at. It ran around the front of the house, and paused at the walk way on which the murderer was now walking. It arched its back and hissed violently. The murderer stopped and looked at the black cat intensely for a few moments before it fell over onto the grass, lifeless. "Disgusting creatures."

Xxx

Lily habitually stretched her body as the rays of the morning sun pierced through her closed eye lids. She felt many things all at once. One sensation was an unfamiliar soreness in her lower body. Another was the cool silky sheets beneath her skin. The final was a warm heaviness behind her, holding her around the middle. She opened her eyes, blushing, daring to believe that the previous night had actually happened. She quietly rolled over to find herself staring into a pair of gray eyes. Her blush turned into a blazing fire under his gaze when she became aware that she had not replaced her uniform with her pajamas.

Scorpius smiled and pulled her against his bare chest, kissing the top of her head. "Good morning, Lily," he whispered, his breath tickling her ear.

She felt goose bumps forming all over her skin. "Good morning," she managed. "Oh, what time is it?" she asked, sitting up suddenly.

"Would you freak out if I told you that potions was half over?"

Lily sprung out of the bed. "Oh no!" she stood next to the bed with her hand over her face. How had she let herself sleep through part of a class? Why hadn't her wand alerted her that it was time to get up? Wait...was her wand even in here?

Scorpius was chuckling lightly. "Relax, I was kidding. It's Saturday Lils. And even if there was class, I couldn't let you go like this," he mused.

"What do you mean? I've been to class without a morning shower before," she said, trying to relax. Part of her still couldn't believe that it was the weekend already.

"You're not wearing clothes, Lily," he said.

She felt the heat rise to her face again as she scanned his room for her uniform...which was in the library, where they had started. She felt his warm hands on her shoulders, and his wet kiss on her neck. Lily gasped as his hands worked their way up and down her arms, while his mouth moved slowly up to her ear lobe. "Come back to bed," he whispered softly in her ear.

Lily tried to stifle a moan as he pressed himself against her and nibbled at her ear. She followed him back under the comforter, giving in to his sweet kisses and hot passion.

Xxx

After finally getting out of bed and showering, the pair took a very late lunch in their common room. This had not been planned, nor did either know it was possible, but the house elves seemed to know that they had not been down to eat yet that day. Lily and Scorpius were greeted by a plate of various sandwiches, a bowl of fruit, a selection of desserts, and a jug of pumpkin juice.

Just as they were about to enjoy their desserts, there was a tap at the window. "Post," Scorpius said, placing his treacle tart back onto his plate.

He strolled lazily over to the window and collected the Daily Prophet and a letter addressed to Lily. He set the latter in front of her plate, and opened his paper to give her some privacy. He stared idly for a few minutes, waiting to hear when she was done with her letter, or any indication of what kind of news it held. She was silent, and he was just about to ask if everything was alright when something in the paper caught his attention.

There had been another death. Blavely, the name sounded familiar. He continued to read the article. The man had been murdered last night. There were no signs of a break in, magical or non, and the cause of death was unidentifiable. There was no physical damage to the body, which would normally lead to the conclusion of the killing curse, however, tests proved negative for that as well. Blavely's body had been radiating with some _foreign_ pulse of magic. Another victim in the vicinity, a dead cat in the front yard, showed the same symptoms and pulses. Blavely appeared to have been defenseless, no wand in sight, in the house even, which lead investigators to the conclusion that it had been stolen. However, they found that no wand had ever been registered to this wizard. A puzzle indeed.

Not to Scorpius. He knew of a man that did not need a wand to do magic. Blavely had been their instructor for the course on wandless magic.

He folded the paper when he realized that Lily had set down her letter. "A-anything interesting?" she asked, nervously.

Scorpius hesitated before responding. "Well we won't be having any more wandless magic classes," he said finally.

Lily nodded. "I figured that much, dad wrote to me telling me to be careful. Apparently there have been observations and traces of strange magic and murders."

"Murders? As in with an 's?'" Scorpuis asked, eyes widening.

Lily nodded. "The rest weren't as alarming. They were less important folk, probably somewhere in the back of the paper."

Sure enough, the obituary section was quite a bit larger than usual. "All of them were found without wands," Lily commented.

"Does the ministry think someone is trying to acquire some?" Scorpius asked.

Lily nodded. "But," she started, pausing. "They are wrong," she said.

"So you mean to tell me that grown witches and wizards went through school and their lives without getting their wands registered?" he said.

She shook her head. "They never had wands," she said.

"So wandless magic is catching on? But that still doesn't explain never having a wand registered under their names. They had to have started somewhere," Scorpius interjected.

"When magic started, there were no wands," Lily said, in a somewhat trance like state.

"Yes, but now we all learn with them. Then people like Blavely master the control of their own bodies and magic flow," Scorpius tried.

"Just listen. This is all making some sense to me. So first I notice all of the crazy movements of Andromeda in the sky. Then, this guy Blavely shows up to teach us some wandless magic, stressing that we should practice the incredibly useful art. Next, Lysander tells me about the old tale of exiled wandless magic users on Andromeda. Now, the man who tried to teach us wandless magic is dead. Murdered actually," she finished.

"And this means..?" Scorpius asked.

"These victims never had wands. Someone must be angry with them, especially with Blavely...because he tried to teach us!," she said excitedly.

"My question still stands, what does this mean?"

Xxx

The Earth shook violently when it had happened. It had been vibrating all day, but Scorpius knew that that time it was different. He though desperately of Lily, who he hadn't seen since they destroyed their wands together over a week ago. The date of the collision was sooner than she had calculated, leaving them short on time. Saying goodbye was not an option now.

Scorpius was standing in his house, wearing a very old pair of clothes. He had warned his family, tried to teach them wandless magic without much success. It had been the same case with Lily. She had been growing so nervous that she could not concentrate. However, Scorpius had taken necessary precautions for their future, just in case. It was all in the bag slung over his shoulder. He made one last check to make sure he was not carrying anything that would give away his real identity.

His shirt pocket was clear, front pockets of his jeans were clear as well, save for one small scrap of paper. He had found it stuffed inside of the information he had received from the Ministry of Magic when he had been shadowing Tragsman. He had not found it until last night. He unfolded the slip of paper and read again, "Born in time will this then unwind. Born the same yet different of his parent's kind."

He took a deep breath and nodded in confidence. He was going to be okay, everything was going to work out. He would find her again. It was with this final thought of Lily that he spun and disaparated into what he hoped, would be a new life; a seemless transition into a familiar yet dramatically different world.

* * *

A/N: Well this is the end of part one. Sorry for the really delayed update! School started and I have had no time! Also, this plot was running away with me, so I decided to end it. So to make up for the blunt end, I have also published the first chapter of the sequel, Magic is Might. Thank you for your reviews and for reading!


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